Falstaff. Lyrical Comedy in Three Acts

Milan, Rome, etc.: G. Ricordi & Co, 1893. 4to (267 x 203 mm; 10½ x 8 inches). 471 pages. Full-page portrait of Verdi. Original gilt-lettered and -ruled green cloth. A fine copy with only slightest of wear at the ends of the spine. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH. Published the same year as the first edition in Italian. Falstaff is the last of Verdi’s operas, composed as he neared his eightieth year. The composer wanted to write a comedy, and collaborated with Boito for three years from mid-1889. Of his 27 operas, this is only his second comedy (the first was his second opera, Un giorno di regno). The work premiered at La Scala in Milan on 9 February 1893; it was published in its original Italian and in translations later that year. .