DONIZETTI, Gaetano 1797-1848

Torquato Tasso [Piano-vocal score, pre-publication proof copy]

Milano: [F. Lucca] [PNs 900, 904, 905, 912 e 913, 914 and 915], [ca. 1833].

Oblong folio. Original blue wrappers with publisher's large ivory printed title label to upper. Engraved. Uncut. With text in Italian. On high quality paper.

Contains the following 6 complete numbers, all with secondary pagination:
- Scene e Duetto. In un etasi che uguale. 19, [i] (blank) pp. (secondary pagination 49-67). PNs 900, L900L.
- Duetto. Colei Safronia. 17, [i] (blank) pp. (secondary pagination 87-103). PNs 904, P904P, z904z.
- Seguito del finale primo. Torquato! mira. Il Fratel t'invia? 35, [i] (blank) pp. (secondary pagination 104-138). PNs 905, n905n.
- Scena e duetto. Poco dunque ti pare. 13, [i] (blank) pp. (secondary paginatio 183-197). PNs 912 e 913, R912-913R, R913R.
- Sei mia ... 34 pp. (secondary pagination 198-231). PN 914.
- Perche dell'aure in sen Gran scena ed aria. Eseguita dal Sigr. Giorgio Ronconi. 27, [i] (blank) pp. (secondary pagaination 232-258). PNs 915, Z915Z.

Upper portion of first page of many numbers blank where title, imprint, etc. would be added for subsequent commercial publication.

Wrappers slightly worn and soiled, spine reinforced with dark ivory tape. Minor internal browning; edges dusty.

CPM Vol. 17 p. 259. Bergamo catalogue 80 (complete plate nos. 897-915). Inzaghi 46.

A "melodramma semiserio" in three acts to a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti after Giovanni Rosini’s Torquato Tasso (and to a lesser degree Carlo Goldoni’s Tasso, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Tasso, and Byron’s The Lament of Tasso) Donizetti's Torquato Tasso was first performed in Rome at the Teatro Valle on 9 September 1833.

"Eleonora’s expressive sortita, ‘Io l’udia nei suoi bei carmi’, and her duet with the poet that follows, ‘Colei Sofronia’, are notable passages. The finest music in the score, however, comes in the last act with Tasso’s Larghetto, ‘Perché dell’aure in sen’, leading into a touching dialogue with chorus; this culminates in a mournful cantabile to form the lyric section of the tempo di mezzo, and is followed by an elegiac cabaletta in C major. As in Anna Bolena, Donizetti here expanded the structure of the aria-finale to fill out an entire scene." William Ashbrook in Grove Music Online.

One of the earliest publications issued by Lucca.

Item #36254

Price: $550.00  other currencies