Othello [Subtitle]: Drame Lyrique en Quatre Actes de Arrigo Boïto... Version française de MM. Camille du Locle et A. Boïto Partition pour Chant et Piano Arrangement de M. Saladino. [Piano vocal score]

Book Description

Paris, Milan, Rome, Naples, Palerme, Londres:: G. Ricordi & C. [PN] 51635 ,. [1894].. Quarto. Quarter navy blue morocco with matching paper boards, the initials "MC" stamped in gilt to upper. 1f. (half-title), 1f. (title), 1f. (r. "Personnages", v. blank), 1f. (r. "Table," v. blank), [1]-366 pp. Text in French. With blindstamped date of October 1894. Cast list including MM. Saléza (Othello), Maurel (Iago), Vaguet (Cassio), Laurent (Rodrigue), Gresse (Lodovico), Douailler (Montano), Euzet (un Héraut); Mmes. Caron (Desdémona) and Héglon (Emilia); conductor Paul Taffanel, "chef du chant" Georges Marty, "chef des choeurs" Delahaye; sets by Jambon, Amable, Gardy, Carpezat, Rubé and Chaperon. With a printed facsimile of Verdi's signature and the date of the first French performance to half-title in blue ink. Some performance marks in pencil. Binding slightly worn and rubbed; head and tail of spine chipped. Slightly browned throughout, most noticeably to margins. Small marginal tear to several leaves repaired; previous owner's signature to half-title; occasional minor defects. . First French Edition. Hopkinson 63B. First performed at La Scala in Milan on February 5, 1887 and in Paris on October 12, 1894. "That Otello, given the composer's age and eminence, should be hailed by the majority as the greatest Italian opera of its day as well as the composer's crowning achievement could be taken for granted. Has time upheld these judgements? The first of them, most certainly... Otello remains as fresh, as challenging, as essentially modern as the day it was written. To detractors of Italian opera it remains, together with Falstaff and the Requiem, the composer's passport to immortality. Indeed many have come to a full understanding of Verdi's genius by starting from Otello and working back to Ernani and Nabucco... Verdi's music has all the strength, nobility and compassion of Shakespeare's poetry to turn a sordid intrigue into one of the finest testaments to the worth of the human spirit." Budden: The Operas of Verdi, Vol. 3, pp. 412-413.

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