The Opera that Never was: Dylan Thomas and Igor Stravinsky’s Projected Collaboration

Abstract

In 1953 there was a projected collaboration between Dylan Thomas and Igor Stravinsky: an opera whose libretto was to be written by the poet and set to music by the composer. Unfortunately, due to Thomas’s death that same year, this plan never materialised. The aim of this article is to offer a detailed exploration of the context within which this project originated and what it entailed for the poet, especially in relation to the direction where Thomas’s work was taking him before his death. The opera with Stravinsky could have been the culmination of the poet’s work inasmuch as it brought together his love of sound, rhythm and music, the horror of the war, his fascination with language and the near-extinction of human life. Moreover, the artists were able to exchange a series of letters before Thomas’s death. The second contribution of our article is the publication of Stravinsky’s letters to Thomas, which have not been previously published. Whilst the narrative of their encounters and relationship has been shaped in certain ways by different writers, a close examination of the primary source materials—the accounts of friends, the content of the letters and the circumstances in which they were written help shed light on this highly promising, but uncompleted, project.