An amusing original lithograph caricature depicting the first reading of Wagner's Parsifal in the foyer of the theatre in Angers, France, accomplished by the double bass player J. Nucci for the occasion and inscribed by him in the plate "A.M. C. J. Nucci / Angers 1890" and signed and inscribed lower right in ink by hand "Souvenir de J. Nucci offert a Monsieur Morry / Angers. 21 Mars 1890." Published by Germain et Grassin. Probably issued an extremely small number of examples, the sheet is rudely folded around a semi-rigid board backing with edges thus well worn and the paper quite wrinkled. Nevertheless, it presents quite well and is a very interesting depiction of a very early Wagner musical occasion in France. 26.3 x 21.6 inches; 55 x 67 cm.

"J. Nucci was a double bass player at the Société des Concerts Populaires and had a great talent for drawing. He therefore captured the features of his fellow musicians in a series of plates...the Lecture Parsifal, with Louis de Romain, Jules Bordier, the conductor Lelong and Alphonse (colossus stature), Closon, Thomson (double bass player)…Very early on, the society introduced Wagner into its concerts, music that was the subject of jokes and caricature." (Sylvain Bertoldi,  Director of the Archives, Musées d'Angers)

Parsifal premiered in Bayreuth in 1882, and for the first twenty years of its existence, the only staged performances of Wagner's last completed opera took place in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Only at Bayreuth, Wagner believed, could his last work be presented in the way envisaged by him – a tradition maintained by his wife, Cosima, long after his death. The Bayreuth authorities allowed unstaged performances to take place in various countries after Wagner's death (London in 1884, New York City in 1886, and Amsterdam in 1894) but they maintained an embargo on stage performances outside Bayreuth. This embargo was not overturned until 1903, when the New York Metropolitan opera finally staged the complete opera. The French premiere of Parsifal took place in 1903 under Alfred Cortot, as part of his Société des Concerts Cortot.