Guiding thoughts for the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte Montepulciano from 1989, published in the program book of the Cantiere 2022.
The composer wrote this text to highlight the uniqueness of the Cantiere and to ensure its economic survival in the long term.

Hans Werner Henze had a special relationship with Berlin, which started to form in the last weeks of World War 2. He returned to the city frequently, whether as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, as a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg or to attend the numerous premieres and first performances of his operas at Berlin's three opera houses.

In his autobiography, Hans Werner Henze remembers the circumstances of the cancelled premiere of his oratorio Das Floß der Medusa on 9 December 1968 in Hamburg.

After the assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke and his expulsion from Switzerland, Dutschke recovers at La Leprara, 1968. Excerpt from the autobiography "Reiselieder mit böhmischen Quinten: Autobiographische Mitteilungen 1926–1995"

The premiere of Nachtstücke und Arien (Nocturnes and Arias) at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in 1957 led to a veritable scandal, after which Hans Werner Henze's music has not been performed there ever since.
Excerpt from the autobiography "Reiselieder mit böhmischen Quinten: Autobiographische Mitteilungen 1926–1995"

In 1954, the composer experienced his first scandal at the Roman premiere of Boulevard Solitude. The claqueurs had been paid by someone else. And Igor Stravinsky, the greatest living composer at the time, was denied entry to the opera house, the Teatro Costanzi. Here is the excerpt from Henze's autobiography: