BIZET, Georges 1835-1875

Carmen Opéra Comique en 4 actes Tiré de la nouvelle de Prosper Mérimée Poème de H. Meilhac et L. Halévy ... Partition Chant et Piano arrangée par l'Auteur ... à Jules Pasdeloup. [Piano-vocal score].

Paris: Choudens Père & Fils [PN A.C. 3082], March 1875.

Large octavo. Quarter dark red morocco with marbled boards, spine in gilt-ruled compartments, titling gilt, marbled endpapers. 1f. (recto title within decorative border, verso blank), 1f. (recto named cast list and index, verso blank), 351, [i] (blank) pp.

Cast includes Lhérie as Don José, Bouhy as Escamillo, Potel as Dancaïre, Barnolt as Remendado, Dufriche as Zuniga, Duvernoy as Moralès, Nathan as Lillas Pastia, Teste as a Guide, Galli-Marié as Carmen, Chapuy as Micaëla, Ducasse as Frasquita, and Chevalier as Mercédès, with set designs by Charles Ponchard.

A presentation copy, with an autograph inscription signed by the composer to the French critic and writer Henri Blaze de Bury (1813-1888), to title: "A Monsieur Blaze de Bury Son bien reconnaissant et dévoué Georges Bizet" (possibly following Blaze de Bury's favorable article about Carmen in the "Revue des Deux Mondes" after hearing the opera).

With occasional performance markings in pencil.

Binding worn and rubbed. Slightly browned; moderate foxing throughout, more pronounced to first and last leaves; numerous tears, some quite significant, in 3 cases with the loss of several measures of music; old repairs to blank margins of many leaves, occasionally obscuring printed area, and several additional old repairs; a number of leaves partially detached; inscription slightly trimmed by the binder, just touching two letters of the dedicatee's name but not Bizet's signature.

First Edition, first issue (with the error in the index listing the Finale of Act II on p. 175, no note to p. 20, and a footnote to p. 49), pre-dating the publication of the full score, published posthumously. Rare. Crawford, p. 53. Fuld, pp. 585-586. Hugh Macdonald: The Bizet Catalogue Online.

Bizet's masterpiece, composed in 1873-1874 to a libretto by H. Meilhac and L. Halévy after Mérimée, was first performed in Paris at the Opéra-Comique on 3 March 1875 under the baton of Adolphe Deloffre (1817-1876).

"Bizet might have surpassed all the many composers active in France in the last third of the 19th century had it not been for his untimely death at the age of 36. Carmen, first performed three months before his death, has become one of the most popular operas of any age. ...

Carmen was orchestrated at Bougival in the summer of 1874 and rehearsals began in September. Bizet arranged the piano score himself and played the piano for rehearsals. ... [It] is recognized as one of the greatest of 19th-century operas, and certainly the most popular. Its tunes are familiar to millions, and its evocation of Spain, where Bizet never set foot, has done as much to propagate the elements of the style as Spanish music itself. ... In Carmen the combination in abundance of striking melody, deft harmony and perfectly judged orchestration ensures the opera’s immortality. It magnificently transcends both the genre of opéra comique and the norms of 19th-century French music. ...

Carmen has remained one of the most frequently performed operas in the entire repertory. Many great singers have been associated with its leading roles. The orchestral suite drawn from the opera is often played, and in 1954 it extended its currency in a film version, Carmen Jones. For three-quarters of a century it was regularly played not as an opéra comique with dialogue, as Bizet wrote it, but with the Guiraud recitatives. It is now played almost everywhere in opéra comique format, although the edition on which modern performances rely, that of Fritz Oeser published in 1964, has aroused bitter controversy since it includes a quantity of music that Bizet himself rejected in his own edition of the vocal score published in 1875. That first edition, published by Choudens, is exceedingly rare, for it was replaced at an early stage by the first of many corrupt editions from the same house." Hugh Macdonald in Grove Music Online.

Item #39457

Price: $6,500.00  other currencies