GLUCK, Christoph Willibald 1714-1787

Alceste Tragedie Opera en Trois Actes ... Representée Pour la premiere fois Par l'Accadémie Royale de Musique Le 30. Avril, 1776. Prix. 60. [Full score]

Paris, Lyon: Au Bureau d'Abonnement Musical, Rue du Hazard Richelieu et Aux Adresses Ordinaires. A Lion Chez Castaud Place de la Commedie, [ca. 1777].

Folio. Early dark brown morocco. 1f. (recto title, verso publisher's catalogue), 293 pp.

With [?]"Lagny" in contemporary black ink to blank inner margin of p. 1.

Binding worn, rubbed, and bumped. Slightly worn; title slightly browned and foxed; occasional minor foxing, soiling, browning, and small stains; several leaves slightly trimmed at outer margin, not affecting text or notation; small loss to blank lower outer corner of p. 87; light impression to lowermost system of p. 43. Lacking pp. 35/36.

Second edition. Wotquenne 44. Hopkinson p. 54, 44A(cc). Lesure p. 236. BUC p. 385. RISM G2639.

Alceste, an opera in three acts with text by R. de Calzabigi and a ballet by Noverre, was first performed on 26 December 1767 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. It was revised by Gluck for a performance in Paris on 23 April 1776.

"Gluck himself stressed the nature of Alceste as a `reform opera' by providing, in the preface dedicating the printed score to the Grand Duke Leopold, a discussion that goes far beyond the conventional. ...That key document, at once a manifesto and a defense ... is a sharp repudiation of the theory, practice and conventions of the old "opera seria" represented in its final phase by Metastasio and his favourite composer, Hasse." TNG Vol. 7, pp. 463 and 467.

Item #40432

Price: $350.00  other currencies