OFFENBACH, Jacques 1819-1880

Barbe-Bleue Opéra Bouffe en trois actes et quatre tableaux Paroles de MM Henri Meilhac et Ludovic Halévy ... Partition Piano et Chant Arrangée par Léon Roques Prix 12f. net. [Piano-vocal score]

Paris: E. Gérard & Cie. [PN C.M. 10459], [1866].

Large octavo. Half ivory cloth with decorative boards, spine with dark red leather title label gilt. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto notes on first perforamance, named cast list, and contents, verso blank), 291, [i] (blank) pp. Lithographed.

Named cast includes Dupuis, Kopp, Grenier, Couder, Hittemans, Hamburger, Horton, Lèonie, Beatrix, Taillefer, Jenny, Schneider, Aline Duval, Vernet, De Géraudon, Amélie, Gabrielle, Legrand, Martin, and la Petite Mathilde.

Binding slightly worn; boards abriaded with some paper loss; ink markings to joints and title label; former owner's signature in pencil to free front endpaper. Minor to moderate foxing; handstamps to lower margin of title; tear to outer margin of final leaf, not affecting music, with tear to lower corner with minor loss.

First Edition.

Barbe-bleue, to a libretto by Meilhac and Halévy, was first performed in Paris at the Variétés on 5 February 1866.

"[Offenbach] was, with Johann Strauss (ii), one of the two composers of outstanding significance in popular music of the 19th century and the composer of some of the most exhilaratingly gay and tuneful music ever written... Moreover, it was through the success of Offenbach’s works abroad that operetta became an established international genre, producing outstanding national exponents in Strauss, Sullivan and Lehár and evolving into the 20th-century musical." Andrew Lamb in Grove Music Online.

Item #29199

Price: $250.00  other currencies