[Eric Crozier, opera producer and librettist, closely associated with Benjamin Britten.] Typed Letter Signed to ‘Mr. Catry’, reminiscing about his first two productions: Smetana’s ‘Bartered Bride’, and 'a world-wide event' - Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice for postage. The address is printed on a small golden label affixed at the top left corner. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Catry’ and signed ‘With all best wishes - and thank you for writing! / Sincerely, / Eric Crozier.’ He asks him to forgive a typed letter, as he is ‘convalescing from a heart-attack, and still not very good at hand-writing. / The opera I must enjoyed producing was, I suppose, my very first - Smetana’s THE BARTERED BRIDE, in 1943, in a new English version, made by Joan Cross and myself, which stayed in the repertoire at Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden for twenty years.’ He recalls that it was first staged ‘during the black-out, to audiences starved of colour and gaiety: our first audience included the Czech government in exile - President Benes, Jan Masaryk, and others - and on the second night they took the whole theatre for their fellow-countrymen to see what all Czechs regarded as their national opera’. The rest of the letter concerns his next production, Britten’s ‘Peter Grimes’ (‘a world-wide event’), premiered at Sadler’s Wells in 1945, ‘and one year later I staged the American premiere with Leonard Bernstein as conductor at Tanglewood. I worked with Britten and Montagu Slater, the librettist, throughout the writing and composition of that great work, which has had, I would guess, a greater international success than any other English opera all through the past fifty years. It is still being staged - Rostropovich will conduct performances of it at the Barbican this March.’