MEYERBEER, Giacomo 1791-1864

Il Profeta Opera in Cinque Atti Rappresentata per la prima volta al Teatro dell' Opéra a Parigi il 16 Aprile 1849 Nuova Edizione Fedelmente Conforme alla Partitura Originale Opera Completa per Canto e Pianoforte Fr. 6 - senza sconto. Franco di porto in tutto il Regno, Fr. 6,20 Per gli altri Stati d'Europa e l'Egitto, Fr. 7 - - Stati Uniti d'America, Fr. 7,50 ... Edizioni Economiche Ricordi. [Piano-vocal score]

Milano: R. Stabilimento Ricordi [PN 45561a & 45561r], [ca. 1879].

Large octavo. Full dark blue cloth with titling gilt to spine. 1f. (recto title, verso bust-length portrait of Meyerbeer), [3]-6 (forward), [7] (named cast list), [8] (printer's device), [9]-25 (libretto), [i] (index), 347, [i] (blank) pp. Text in Italian.

Named cast includes Roger, Levasseur, Gueymard, Euzet, Brémond, Viardot, and Castellan.

Binding slightly worn; corners bumped. Slightly worn and browned; outer margins of first seven leaves very slightly defective; small oval music seller's handstamp to title; small circular publisher's blindstamp dated 1879 to lower inner margins.

Le prophète, to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, was first performed in Paris at the Opéra on April 16, 1849.

In Le prophète, Meyerbeer was the first composer to use the leitmotif as an indication of what lies ahead, a function described later by Wagner as Ahnung or premonition... [The opera incorporated] the first successful use in any theatre of an electric spotlight, which Meyerbeer had specially made by the physicist Léon Foucault... The première of Le prophète was a triumph of theatrical history, and its success was undoubtedly heightened by its unintentional political topicality following the 1848 revolution." Matthias Brzoska in Grove Music Online.

Item #28651

Price: $30.00  other currencies