Author: OFFENBACH (Jacques):
Title: The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, Comic Opera, The English Words by Charles Lamb Kenney. The Music by J. Offenbach.
Description: London: Boosey & Co..., [no date]. [?1868]. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 4to, 285 x 202 mms., pp. [iv], 279 [280 blank], a piano-vocal score, finely bound in full contemporary English red morocco, with fine gilt borders and gilt panel with "Evelyn" in centre of front boards, spine ornately gilt in compartments, all edges gilt; inner margin of title-page stained, front joint and corners slightly rubbed but a very good to fine and attractive copy. Offenbach (1819 - 1880) could count La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) as one of his most successful operettas. This English version by Kenney (1821 - 1881) was performed at Covent Garden in November, 1867; and Boosey issued an English libretto in 1868. ODNB notes that the concert promoter John Russell produced "the first faithfully adapted English version of a full-sized opéra bouffe by Offenbach to be produced in Britain. He entrusted the adaptation of La grande-duchesse to Kenney. Russell's production proved a landmark, opéra bouffe became the rage of the English and American stage for a decade, and productions of Kenney's highly praised version of La grande-duchesse were seen throughout the English-singing world for many years."

Keywords: music binding prose literature opera


See more books from our catalog: Music