Hans Werner Henze, the greatest living composer, just talked with the Times of London about Elegy For Young Lovers, WH Auden, and other cool topics:
“Originally we imagined Mittenhofer as an actor,” Henze says. “But Auden pointed out that an actor is just some poor bastard who learns lines. There’s not much creativity there. ‘We need a creative artist,’ he said, ‘to make the moral of our story as terrible and dramatic as it needs to be’.” And the moral is? “That it’s a mistake to look up to creative geniuses as if they are heroes or gods,” Henze replies. “As often as not they are horrible people who inflict terrible things on other people.”
But is it possible to be a creative genius and yet also behave decently? Doesn’t the making of great art require uncompromising, single-minded selfishness? Henze shakes his head sadly. “I’ve always believed that it must be possible to create art without ruining people’s lives.”