HANDEL, George Frideric 1685-1759

Justin an Opera as it is Perform'd at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden. [HWV 37]. [Score].

London: Printed for and Sold by I. Walsh, Musick Printer and Instrument maker to his Majesty, at the Harp & Hoboy in Catherine Street in the Strand. No. 609, [1737].

Folio. Modern half dark red morocco with ivory paper boards, titling gilt to spine. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto table, verso blank), 1f. (recto list of subscribers, verso blank), 104 pp. Engraved throughout.

Comprised primarily of vocal selections, with most recitative omitted. Instrumental selections include the opening overture and the 'Sinfonia' on p. 62.

Singers named within the score include Sigr. Conti, Sigra. Strada, Sigr. Hannibali, Mr. Savage, Sigra. Bertolli, Sigra. Negri, Mr. Beard, and Mr. Reinhold.

With "2nd Violin" in contemporary manuscript to middle stave of fourth system, p. 4.

Subscribers include Charles Jennens Esq. and Mr. Moses Mendez da Costa.

Binding very slightly worn, rubbed, and bumped. Occasional light foxing and soiling; title soiled and slightly stained, with minor loss to blank corners and outer margin; very minor loss to corners of table and list of subscribers; ink stain to p. 37, not affecting music; dampstaining and soiling to final leaf, primarily to outer margin.

First Edition, first issue. Smith p. 35, no. 1. BUC p. 427. RISM H189.

First performed at Covent Garden on 16 February 1737, adapted from a libretto by Count Nicolò Beregan, a Venetian lawyer and man of letters (1627-1713).

"Like most of Handel's late operas Giustino has a fine overture and a compound finale, a free quintet and full coro based on the same melody, a minuet with a strong resemblance to that of the chorus 'Tyrants now no more shall dread' in Hercules.

The scoring, with recorders, horns and trumpets each appearing in three movements, is richer than in other late operas, as befits the Byzantine setting. ... The predominance of the major modes - of forty-two set pieces, counting the overture as one and excluding Arianna's echo arioso, only eight are in minor keys, and five of them are in Act III - is one pointer to the increasing prominence of the new galant style. Another is the comparative rarity of genuinely slow arias (barely half a dozen in tempos slower than Andante). This tendency, of which there are many further signs, explains Burney's surprisingly high estimate of Giustino ('so seldom acted and so little known') as 'one of the most agreeable of Handel's dramatic productions'." Dean: Handel's Operas 1726-1741, p. 373.

Jennens (1700-1773) supplied the libretto to Handel's Saul. He was a "scholar, man of letters and amateur musician ... one of the first of the composer’s supporters to understand the dramatic potential of oratorio." Anthony Hicks in Grove Music Online

Da Costa (?1690-1758), a Jewish English poet and playwright, may have supplied the libretti for Handel's oratorios Solomon and Susanna.

A lifetime first edition of Justin, one of Handel's works especially esteemed by music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814).

Item #39637

Price: $4,200.00  other currencies