The mise-en-scene does not require any special
efforts; the piece only requires a somewhat piquant and not
unskillful soprano singer. Altogether the opera appears to me to
be written in a charming style, not too superficially
conservative, and to be one of the best among the new operas
mezzo-carattere. In case you still have time and are not
indisposed to give the opera in Frankfort, I can send you the
score. You would do Vesque an essential service if you could give
the opera soon, and would have friendly relations with him, for
Vesque is a cultivated, intelligent, and first-rate man. [Vesque
von Puttlingen (pseudonym, Hoven), 1803-83, Councillor of the
Austrian Foreign Ministry, composer of songs and operas.] There
are not too many such!
Yours in all friendship,
F. Liszt
Weimar, February 27th, 1853
98. To Heinrich Brockhaus, Bookseller in Leipzig
[Published in a German translation: La Mara, "Letters of
Musicians during Five Centuries, vol. ii., 1887.]
My dear Mr. Brockhaus,
In thanking you for your kind mention of the notice joined to my
name in the Conversations Lexikon, I wish above all things not to
go beyond the limits of most scrupulous delicacy, which in these
sorts of things have always appeared to me all the more desirable
to maintain because they are so very often passed.
