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[ Aetat- 47-50 ] J O Y C E 627Antheil's objection that he could scarcely dictate the choice of the tenorto an opera house, Joyce urged him to write the part in 'the pure tenortradition,' 73thus automatically excluding all tenors but Sullivan. ButAntheil was in such great discomfort, that Joyce reluctantly allowed himto wrench free of the scheme, not without a last-minute hope of pullinghim back.It would be most unfair on my part to try to influence you in any wayas to your future plans so please discount me altogether. I offered thissuggestion to you because you asked me for one and because certain partsof your music seemed to me to be akin to the voice which is causing allthis unnecessary correspondence. If you feel that you cannot write thisopera at once, with enthusiasm and with spiritual profit to yourself andyour art without any consideration for the veering tastes of impresariosplease say so without hesitation and allow me to offer poor Byron andpoorer Sullivan elsewhere.I enclose a notice, which please return to me with your reply, from aGenoese paper of last week about Sullivan's reappearance in the land ofsong after seven years in the musical wilderness. Quite a lot of Ligurianspray will dash the quays of La Superba before any sex-appealing hackfrom Covent Garden or the Metropolitan obtains from the only audiencein the world which knows what singing is one tithe of that recognition.I got up out of bed at three o'clock a.m. to type this and will now ringdown the curtain for this night, sending you both in valediction my bestwishes for the coming year and again asking you to let me hear from youby return of post.One point more. You will be in error if you imagine that I have anyreal influence with the wealthy musicophiles in London and New Yorkwho control the destinies of opera in those cities. My experience of themso far is that they are uncommonly pleased to accept from me signed editionsde luxe of my literary works and that when they are told what notesa singer is actually emitting at any given moment, their faces express themost sympathetic interest.[January 3, 1931]Sincerely yoursJames Joyce 74Apart from cutting Cain and trying to win Antheil over, there was notmuch Joyce could do for Sullivan while the singer was away on tour fromNovember 1930 until the following spring. In mid-November, betweensitting for Augustus John* and having his eyes checked by Vogt in Zu-* John said Joyce had 'a buttoned-up look,' and surprised Joyce, at the end of the sittings,by embracing him. Joyce did not altogether like John's drawing, which he thought failedto represent accurately the lower part of his face. But when it was reproduced in TheJoyce Book, he was complimentary enough: 'Praise from a purblind penny poet would beridiculous but your drawing is clearly the one thing in the volume which is indissentable.I wish I could see the lines better myself . . . .' 7SHe sat for a series of artists including Ivan Opffer, Emile Becat, Myron Nutting, FrankBudgen, Jo Davidson, Sean O'Sullivan, and Jacques Emile Blanche. To Blanche heremarked, 'I was fond of pictures, but now the nails on the walls are quite enough.'