Hans Werner Henze, possibly the greatest composer of the post-WWII years, a true gentleman (and a dog lover) passed away today at the age of 86.
The sense of loss is just too overwhelming, as of now, to add much more -- Opera Chic was lucky enough to meet the great man in Florence at the "Phaedra" premiere, and as she wrote then, OC never had the chance to meet Strauss, or Schoenberg, or Stravinsky. But she had the honor to meet Hans Werner Henze. And the memory of that encounter, and of his kind smile when an American girl introduced herself and told him how much his music menat to her, will always remain in her heart.