Item 63 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

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Roundhurst, Haslemere:- Will 'certainly' come to Wallington on the 23rd, or whichever day his parents are starting there. So his father may understand why he was 'unwilling to come', will say 'frankly that for a Wagnerian to miss the Götterdämmerung when he has been looking forward to it for half a year is a serious disappointment': it is 'Wagner's supreme opera', but also 'the culminating point of the tetralogy, which has never before been done in succession in England'. In addition, the Ring 'never has been, and may never be again, conducted and acted so splendidly'.

His father therefore must not mind Robert being disappointed, and 'wishing that George had been able to come instead', but he would 'rather miss the whole cycle of the Ring' than have his parents think he 'put[s his] pleasures' before theirs.

TRER/12/21: Letter, 12 May 1898, from Sir George Otto Trevelyan to Robert Trevelyan, to which this letter is a reply. Sir George thinks Robert should give up the performance [of Götterdämmerung].

TRER/13/78: Letter, 14 May [1898]. from Caroline Trevelyan to Robert Trevelyan, written in response to the present letter.