STRAUSS, Richard 1864-1949

[Op. 75]. Die Ägyptische Helena... Oper in zwei Aufzügen von Hugo von Hofmannsthal... Vollständiger Klavierauszug mit Text von Otto Singer. [Piano-vocal score]

Berlin: Adolph Fürstner [PN A. 7903 F.], 1931.

Folio. Original publisher's decorative ivory wrappers with titling in ivory on a black ground. [i] (title), [ii] (statement regarding performance rights), [iii] (dedication), [iv] (blank), [v] ("Personen"), [vi] (blank), pp. 5-336. Text in German.

Wrappers very slightly worn. Lower outer corners slightly bumped. A very good copy overall.

First Edition, second issue. Trenner 255. Mueller von Asow p. 821. Crawford p. 485. With additional plate numbers to foot of pp. [ii] and [v]. The dedication leaf, not present in the first issue, was added to this issue.

First performed at the Staatsoper in Dresden on June 6, 1928 with Fritz Busch conducting and in a revised version at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg on August 14, 1933.

"Strauss’s score is loyally inventive. The ‘thematic transformations’ are endless, the orchestral pictures fresh, the pace well varied. If the musical tagging of every dramatic element sounds like period routine, the opera has a saving lyrical grace: more relaxed and fluid than either his preceding Hofmannsthal opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten, or the more recent Intermezzo to his own text." David Murray in Grove Music Online.

Item #29543

Price: $200.00  other currencies