28 JULY 1961, Page 16

Auden was wise not to spell out the Elegy; the

risks, even if the librettist be himself a genius, were too big. The libretto is enormously enjoy- able. It is the familiar Auden world of the moun- tain (not F6 but the equally Audenish 'Hammer- horn'), Europe, ports and poets, characters trapped in their separate illusions, Nanny de- feated, of lyric poetry, racy doggerel, schoolboy audacity, parody, compassion, and it does not pall. But does it work in its central postulate? `Unless, at the end, the audience are convinced that the poem is a very good one,' writes Auden,