Letter believed to be from David Diamond to "Higgie," Hildegarde Lasell Watson

              7/20
Dear Higgie,

Thought you might appreciate a note from me.  I have certainly promised you one often enough.  You have probably already seen Michael and no doubt he has already informed you of his adventures in Europe.  I will, however, reiterate them, because you may be interested in hearing of them from me.

The only thing we have shared in common was a trip we both took to Northern Italy.  We were in a small resort town on the coast that is a rather pleasant place to be.  There is not a great deal to say about it, nothing particularly outstanding to mention.  We did, however, get to Venice for a short time.  Mike considers himself the seasoned traveler when he's there (he has been 4 or 5 times before) and is not as excited about looking around as I was.  I discovered that walking was rather more interesting than riding. As you know, there are substantially more ways of getting places than there first appears to be.  I found the city most interesting when I was walking, becuase there is substantially more to see than when going down the grand canal.

7/26
Attempting to finish this letter.  I have been back in Munich for some time now and have gone to a number of operas.  I saw Julius Caesar (Händel) a few days ago.  It was quite good.  Claire was singing Cleopatra.  It was beautifully done.  I have also seen a Cosi fan tutte and a Magic Flute.  Calire was Fiordiligi in Cosi and sounded quite good.  The Magic Flute had neither David nor Claire in it, but I wanted to see the opera so I went.  Papageno (Hermann Prey) was excellent and Tamino and Pamina were fairly good. I was disappointed in the Queen of the Night however, because she was quite poor (not commmon thing with the particular singer) She simply had a bad night.  I am expecting to see another