8 Grosvenor Crescent, S.W. - They are again having bad weather, but are all well, though Julian has a 'slight cold'. They are dining with the H[enry] Y[ates] Thompsons tonight, and may perhaps go on to Charles's At Home, where they will 'see plenty of… read more
8 Grosvenor Crescent, S.W. - They are again having bad weather, but are all well, though Julian has a 'slight cold'. They are dining with the H[enry] Y[ates] Thompsons tonight, and may perhaps go on to Charles's At Home, where they will 'see plenty of politicians, and hear how things are going. The Estimates look very bad', with the 'only comfort' being that 'the stand made by the Treasury seems to have reduced them considerably'.
Was pleased by the review of his book [The New Parsifal] in the Times, by Clutton-Brock; likes to think his praise was 'justified'. As for Clutton-Brock's 'regrets' that Robert writes 'only for a small and hyper-cultured audience, no one shares them more completely' than Robert himself. However, if the opera [The Bride of Dionysus] he has written with Tovey is performed, 'as it probably soon will be in Germany', it is possible that they might collaborate again 'on a comic opera, which would have to be more on the scale of a Gilbert and Sullivan, or an Offenbach'. Robert's latest play, and Sisyphus, are 'too long and too elaborate for opera'. For the present, though, he and Tovey are both busy with other things.
It was a 'great pleasure' to him that his father liked Parsifal so much. He and Bessie are very glad to hear that his father's book [George III and Charles Fox] is finished; Robert looks forward to 'reading it as a whole'. Bessie sends love.
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