124 11 january 1989 Dear George, [ … ] I am quite a bit closer to thinking about undertaking writing a new opera now than when I wrote to you some cryptic words about it the last time. Yet my escape gear is kept in a good working order, just in case … But I will tell you here a bit, with the understanding that: (a) you won’t hold me to this undertaking, should I decide, at a later date, not to go ahead with it and (b) since matters are as uncertain, still, you agree not to breathe word to anyone apart [from] Gene about it. Well, then, here it is. I now have the outline of an ‘opera fantasy’ on the life of Julius Robert Oppenheimer of Los Alamos fame.1 Do I need to say more? You will immediately sense the awesomeness of an undertaking of this sort and size. I should not (for my sake) get into the details, beyond saying that for the past 4 months I have been immersed in reading about him, his circles , time, environments, discipline, and related concerns. This has proven to be a corpus of very considerable size, and I have just begun touching upon archival materials and conducting interviews with a few select persons who were close to him. I now have the outline (Draft One) of a libretto: 3 acts, each containing 12 shorter, or longer, scenes. I could go on, but shall stop right here, because suddenly (that was 3 weeks ago) work on Oppenheimer (this is a working title) had to stop as a result of a ’phone call ‘out of the blue.’ A few days before Christmas I was informed ‘officially’ that the Music Director Elect of the Toronto Symphony2 wishes to commission me to write a piece for him & the orchestra, a work that would begin the 1989| 223 1989–90 season’s first concert. Dates: Sept. 13, 14, 16. Despite the very closeness of the deadline, I felt I cannot, should not, turn this invitation down. You can easily see that other projects had to move to the backburner , which they did, as I undertook, almost immediately work on the new piece. Actually, the ‘nature’ of the program of these concerts, which, first, struck me like a minor lightning bolt, gave me an idea about the new work’s character. I explain: my piece, an ‘appetizer,’ if I cannot do ‘something ’ with it, comes before that icon, that giant of an icon, the 9th Symphony of B[eethoven]’s. Imagine, the predicament! Once again, I cannot, should not, get into a verbal description of the tack I am taking right now. Words would get in the way of the music I am trying to ‘hear,’ from the ‘inside,’ so to say … Eventually, there will be a story, and you will be, most likely, the first person, after Bea, of course, to whom I shall have the pleasure of telling what got transacted … So, for the time being, be patient, dear friend. So, you see, from this slightly light-headed text & script (as if I would be slightly drunk, and in a state which some ancient Greeks would have called a poetic mania, one of the kinds of madness they recognized) that I am having an exciting, if quite a bit worrisome, time … (Will I be able to pull it off, in kind, and on time … ??) [ … ] You wrote about frustration resulting from trying to mesh brain with scientists. I know the feeling … Yet one is drawn to those ‘other kinds’ of minds because [of] the secrets they are wrestling with. With this thought, which also is a part of the Oppenheimer story, I take leave, from you, dear friend. Do write … of yourself. [ … ] Istvan 125 3 march 1989 Dear old friend Isty, It was a wonderful surprise the other night to hear your voice and esp[ecially] good to have a chance to talk. I sensed you are in the throes of your present work. Actually you caught me in a released state for I had just finished the Rhapsody & Prayer & had sent it off to my copyist the day before.3 It is rare indeed for me to feel “at ease” with myself & the world, and if & when it comes, it’s usually just after having given birth. So where there were no works for violin & piano before (except for much earlier things long rejected) now there are two: the 29' 4-mov[emen]t Sonata of last year and the...