GLUCK, (Christoph Willibald). Alceste. Tragedie. Opera en trois Actes. Par Monsieur le Chevalier Gluck. Representée Pour la premiere foir Par l'Accadémie Royale de Musique. Le 30. Avril 1776. Prix 24. Paris, Au Bureau d'Abonnement Musical (before 1783).
Folio. Title, 293 pp., (1) p. (blank). Engraved throughout. 19th century half calf with green leather boards (somewhat stained and rubbed); spine gilt, spine label, owner's name (Mme. Adolphe de Lanneau") printed on front board. Third edition of the French version. Full score. Printed from the plates of the original edition, new title ("Titelauflage"). A word to the provenance: This copy was previously in the possession of the wife of Adolphe de Lanneau de Marey. He was a member of the important Paris family Lanneau de Marey, well-known in pedagogical circles and - like his father Pierre Antoine Victor before him - director of the École Sainte Barbe in Paris; they had reopened this school in 1798 (see Michaud, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, Vol. XXIII, p. 208-210). The "Alceste" is present - similar to that of "Orphée et Euridice" - in both an Italian and a French version. The latter was considered by the composer himself to be not so much as a revision, but rather as a new work. As was the case with other of Gluck's Paris Reform Operas, it took a long time before the "Alceste" became firmly established; the premiere was rather unsuccessful. Browned throughout, in places with damp- or brown-stains. Hopkinson 44 A (e); RISM G 2640 (with 2 entries only!); Hirsch 263; BSB 6, 2265; CPM 24, 47. Thus not in Hoboken Collection.
Euro460
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