MERCADANTE, Saverio 1795-1870

Leonora [Piano-vocal score]

Melodramma semiserio in 4 atti di Marco D'Arienzo ... riduzione con accomp.to di pianoforte ... L'opera intera D.8.00

Napoli: Stabilmento Musicale Partenopeo [PNs 6758-6760, 6764-6767, 6781-6782, 6787-6788, 10504-11056], [ca. 1853].

Oblong folio. Burgundy leather-backed green textured cloth boards; titling and decorative devices gilt to spine. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto named cast list and contents, verso blank), 5-312 pp. Each number with separate caption title and some with secondary pagination. Engraved.

Title lists 11 alternate versions from the publisher’s earlier issue. Named cast list includes Avignone, Laboccetta, Luzio, Vita, De Rosa, Rebussini, and Testa.

From the collection of Italian conductor, vocal coach, and close associate of Puccini and Mascagni, Luigi Ricci (1893-1981). Handstamp ("Scuola di canto del Mo. Lombardini") to title and many pages throughout.

Binding somewhat worn and rubbed, with occasional defects; remnants of paper label covering spine. Front free endpaper mostly lacking; upper hinge split. Light thumbing throughout; occasional foxing.

First Edition, later issue, with some revised plates.

Leonora, in 4 acts to a libretto by Marco d’Arienzo after G.A. Bürger, premiered in Naples at the Teatro Nuovo on 5 December 1844.

"[Leonora] was a nod in the direction of the Neapolitan buffo tradition, mingling the advanced operatic style of the 1840s in the serious parts with 18th-century parlando in the buffo sections (in Neapolitan dialect and with secco recitatives); it was the most successful opera of Mercadante’s late Neapolitan period." Michael Wittmann in Grove Music Online.

Item #33509

Price: $275.00  other currencies