"Manon" - The composer's working copy with manuscript revisions from an Italian performance

Paris: G. Hartmann. Opera-comica in quattro atti e sei quadri. Italian Piano-vocal score. 391 pp. Engraved throughout. [PN] G.H. 1528. Small 4to. 184 pp. [the remainder lacking]. The cover with an affixed title label, the ink stamp of G. Hartmann and inscribed and signed by the composer: "partition avec suppression des roles de Poussette, de Javotte et de Rosette, coupures etc.etc. pour l'Italie. J. Massenet. Paris juillet 1891." The cuts marked throughout in blue pencil, generally followed with autograph music insertions or revisions in red ink in the hand of the composer, sometimes on pasted or pinned in slips, including scenic indications and notes ("see the vocalises sung by Miss Sibyl Sanderson" etc). In fragile condition, disbound, the cover with extensive chipping and tears repaired, nevertheless a remarkable copy prepared for an important performance in Italy.

The opera was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on January 19, 1884 with enormous success and has remained Massenet's most popular and enduring opera.  At the Royal Italian Opera (today Royal Opera House) the premiere was on May 19, 1891 though it was staged in Italy only on November 18, 1893, when the first performance took place in the Teatro Carignano in Turin in the Italian translation by Angelo Zanardini under the direction of Ruggero Leoncavallo. At the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome it was staged on 21 April 1894. (19529)

---

Manuscript Music

Opera

• Sold