Admetus. An Opera.

Handel (George Frederic)

Admetus. An Opera.

Description: FIRST EDITION OF FULL SCORE, engraved illustrated title, engraved index including small Cluer & Creake ad at foot of page, letterpress list of subscribers, engraved music with 15/16 staves per page, fore-edge of title-page faintly toned, contemporary inscription on final leaf recto (see below), pp. [vi], 127, 4to, contemporary panelled calf, with blind roll-tooled borders and fleurons at each corner, R.F lettered in gilt and gilt-stamped ornament at centre of both boards, rebacked retaining contemporary label, corners and upper edge of rear board sympathetically restored, a few slight abrasions, very good

Publication Details: Engrav'd, Printed and Sold by J. Cluer, [1727]

Notes: Handel's Admetus, a three-act opera, its story loosely based on Euripides' Alcestis, was written for the Royal Academy of Music, an organisation established under Royal Charter to satisfy the extraordinary demand for Italian opera during this period, and first performed at the Haymarket Theatre on 31st January, 1727 (the same year in which the composer wrote Zadok the Priest). It was an immediate success, in part due to the composer's masterful dramatic technique, the unnerving use of dissonance and chromaticism in the opening scene's ballet of demons particularly striking; and in part due to ...moreHandel's Admetus, a three-act opera, its story loosely based on Euripides' Alcestis, was written for the Royal Academy of Music, an organisation established under Royal Charter to satisfy the extraordinary demand for Italian opera during this period, and first performed at the Haymarket Theatre on 31st January, 1727 (the same year in which the composer wrote Zadok the Priest). It was an immediate success, in part due to the composer's masterful dramatic technique, the unnerving use of dissonance and chromaticism in the opening scene's ballet of demons particularly striking; and in part due to the vocal prowess of the performers, 'Sensino', the castrato, and the competing sopranos, Foustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni, each with their own vocal band of partisan supporters. Cuzzoni's original performance, it was reported, drove a man in the gallery to cry out "Damn her: she has got a nest of nightingales in her belly", while an inscription beside her name in a contemporary programme reads: "She is a devil of a singer". The work was revived in 1732 and 1754, where it proved to be the last of his own operas which Handel saw. (handelhendrix [.] org/learn/about-handel/opera-synopses/admeto; McClelland, Ombra: Supernatural Music in the Eighteenth Century, 2012)On final leaf recto, an inverted near contemporary inscribed list including costs, which, though short, is quite telling: 'To four yards of black ribbon - 0.2.0. To a Necklace - 0.2.2. To Chair hire - 0.0.4. To the poor box- 0.0.2'From the library of Richard Luckett, Pepys Librarian, Magdalene, Cambridge, with his neat typographical book label designed by Will Carter of the Rampant Lions Press.Library Hub cites 8 UK locations, not Cambridge; WorldCat adds 2 continental European and 6 US locations, not Berkeley or Yale. HIDE

Bibliography: (ESTC N50039, published date from the London Journal, June 24, 1727)