THOMAS, Arthur Goring 1850-1892

"And she says true..." Song for tenor voice and piano. Engraved [?]proof copy signed by British tenor John Harrison.

Small folio. Paginated 141-145. Complete.

With the handstamp of British tenor John Harrison in purple ink to upper outer portion of first page of music and the oval handstamp of Boosey & Co., 295 Regent Street, [London] 6 Apr. [19]08 to upper inner corner.

Taped into plain yellow wrappers with manuscript titling to upper: "Recit this "O vision entrancing" (Esmerelda) Goring Thomas," signed in full by Harrison.

With corrections and annotations in pencil.

Slightly worn, soiled, and creased.

"From his early unfinished opera Don Braggadocio, [Thomas] showed a strong inclination towards dramatic music and the theatre, confirmed with a second opera, The Light of the Harem, written while at the RAM and in part performed there in 1879. Its success along with performances of his anthem Out of the Deep (1878), his concert-scenas (including Hero and Leander, 1880) and the romantic cantata The Sun-Worshippers (1881) brought his name to prominence. He was commissioned by Carl Rosa to write an opera, and the resulting Esmeralda, after Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, was produced in 1883 to great acclaim. It was later given in German in Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin, and was revived in 1890 in French at Covent Garden before being given again in its original English version by the Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1908. Driven by its success, Rosa commissioned a second opera, Nadeshda, which was performed in April 1885 and afterwards, in a German version, at Breslau in 1890. Although it was recognized as a stronger and more robust work, Esmeralda nevertheless remained far more enduringly popular. Both works, however, established Thomas at the forefront of British opera." Jeremy Dibble in Grove Music Online.

Harrison was a well-known singer who made some of the earliest recordings.

Item #30143

Price: $50.00  other currencies