LULLY, Jean-Baptiste 1634-1687 and Philippe QUINAULT 1635-1688

Thesée Tragedie en Musique Ornée d'Entrées de Ballet, de Machines, & de Changements de Theatre. Representée devant Sa Majesté à Saint Germain en Laye, le onzième jour de Janvier 1675. [LWV 51]. [Libretto]

Paris: Christophe Ballard, seul Imprimeur du Roy, pour la Musique, ruë Saint Jean de Beauvais au Mont Parnasse ... Par exprés commandement de Sa Majesté, 1675.

Small quarto. Modern marbled boards with paper title label to upper and spine. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. ("Acteurs du Prologue"), 4ff. ("Prologue"), 1f. ("Acteurs de la Tragedie"), 76 pp. With woodcut device to title including Apollo with lyre, figures in Greco-Roman dress with harp and lute, and a pegasus; exceptionally fine woodcut headpiece to Prologue and additional headpieces to each act; decorative woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout.

Full named cast lists for the "Acteurs du Prologue" and the "Acteurs de la Tragedie."

Small holes to blank inner margins from previous sewing; slightly worn; very occasional minor foxing, soiling, and stains; minor loss to blank upper outer corner of pp. 31/32.

First Edition, fourth issue. Sonneck Librettos p. 1069. Schmidt LLC3-2.3.

Thesée, a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts to a libretto by Quinault after Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was first performed at St Germain-en-Laye on 11 January 1675.

"The orchestra and chorus are used with brilliant effect in several divertissements, but especially in the evocation of battle throughout Act 1. Medea’s role (like that of Lully’s final lovesick sorceress, Armide) is replete with expressive monologue airs: ‘Doux repos’, ‘Dépit mortel’, ‘Sortez, Ombres’ and ‘Ah! faut-il me venger’. Thésée was part of the standard repertory at the Paris Opéra from 1675 until 1767; in addition, it was selected to represent Lully when, in 1779, the Opéra presented an historical survey of French operatic styles. Lully’s score was substantially modernized by editors for productions from 1754 onwards." Lois Rosow in Grove Music Online.

Item #39689

Price: $2,000.00  other currencies