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. Contemporary half dark red cloth with marbled boards, titling gilt to spine, marbled endpapers. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (contents), 2-77, [i] (blank) pp. Lithographed.

Bordeaux musicseller's handstamp to lower outer corner of title.

Binding soiled and slightly worn. Uniform light browning; occasional minor stains and soiling; two small tears to blank lower margin of p. 59 repaired with archival tape; title slightly trimmed,at outer margin, affecting several letters of musicseller's handstamp.

First Edition, later issue.

L'Arlésienne was first performed on 1 October 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: TNG Vol. 2, pp. 758-759.

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.

Item #40974

Price: $75.00  other currencies