BIZET, Georges 1835-1875

L'Arlésienne Drame en 3 Actes de Alphonse Daudet ... Partition Chant & Piano. Pr: 5f. net ... A mon Ami Hippolyte Rodrigues. [Piano-vocal score]

Paris: Choudens Père & Fils [PN A.C. 2484], [after 1886].

Large octavo. Original publisher's gray wrappers. 1f. (recto title, verso publisher's notes), [1] (contents), 2-77, [i] pp.

Wrappers detached; spine lacking. First leaves detached; signatures separated; minor soiling and staining.

First Edition, later issue.

French author and playwright Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) wrote such noted works as Letters from My Windmill (1869) and Sidonie (1874). The Letters included the short story, L'Arlésienne, which was transformed into the play for which Bizet composed his incidental music.

The music was first performed on October 1, 1872. "The score ... is a triumph almost without rival of its kind, and cannot be fully appreciated apart from the play it was intended to illustrate. Of the 27 numbers, many are mélodrames only a few bars long ... and the longer movements of the suites, although they never stale as concert music, have a primary dramatic integrity." Winton Dean in The New Grove Vol. 2, pp. 758-59.

Item #36801

Price: $120.00  other currencies