Tonight, the Stars Sing

To you, at the House of the Secession,

Welcome to the Storm Post Office. This letter is posted from Vienna in January 1914, and it is an invitation to a performance. On ivory paper stand geometric Secession capitals, a lattice of flat gold laurel leaves, indigo squares, the burgundy silhouette of an opera stage and a small embossed dome, printed with the fineness of a jewel. The city is cold in January, and the windows are bright.

Over the door of the Secession house there is a sentence inscribed: "To the age its art; to art its freedom." — Ludwig Hevesi, motto of the Vienna Secession building (1898)

Tonight the stars may well sing. Sit down, hear the whole song, and then write to us. Letters travel slowly, and so does a song that is worth hearing.

Until the interval,

Storm Post Office

January 1914 · Vienna

P.S. The embossed dome is shallow. Use a fingertip, not a nail.