DONIZETTI, Gaetano 1797-1848

Poliuto I Martiri Opéra Italien... Prix 12f. net. [Piano-vocal score]

Paris: Schonenberger [PNs S. 1828, 1188], [ca. 1852].

Octavo. 1f. (title), [i] (thematic table of contents), [i] (publisher's catalog), 162 pp. Engraved.

Vendor's handstamp to lower margin of title.

Lacking wrappers, with remnants of modern green paper to spine. Moderately foxed; some leaves stained; repairs to margins of some leaves, affecting several measures of music.

Later edition. Lesure II, pp. 395-396. OCLC no. 7618582.

Poliuto, a tragedia lirica to a libretto by Salvadore Cammarano after Pierre Corneille's play Polyeucte, was first performed at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on November 30, 1848.

"Never very successful in Paris, Les Martyrs enjoyed some circulation in an Italian translation, as I martiri, but in Italy the more compact, three-act Poliuto was generally preferred. Its performance history there began in 1848, when it received its première, in Naples, soon after Donizetti’s death; the recent granting of a constitution there made the mounting of the banned work seem a political gesture as well as an artistic one. Throughout the 19th century it was put on periodically as a vehicle for such dramatic tenors as Tamberlik and Tamagno. It has had some notable revivals: at La Scala in 1940 with Gigli and Caniglia and in 1960 with Corelli and Callas; in 1977 at the S Carlo; and in Vienna in 1986, with Carreras. A Rome revival in 1988 followed a text that removed many years’ editorial accretions. Les martyrs too has been revived, notably in Venice in 1978." William Ashbrook in Grove Music Online.

Item #26482

Price: $80.00  other currencies