Beschreibung:

Massenet, Jules IMPORTANT AND COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTION OF SOME FIFTY FIRST EDITIONS, INCLUDING INSCRIBED VOCAL SCORES, 20 RARE FULL SCORES AND CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRAL PERFORMING PARTS, LIBRETTOS, LARGE EARLY PLAYBILLS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND DESIGNS FOR MASSENET'S OPERAS, INCLUDING MANY SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY THE COMPOSER 1) An almost complete series of the operas, first and early editions, over 40 volumes, most in half- or quarter calf, including fifteen items signed and inscribed by Massenet, some with autograph musical quotations, including Werther, Esclarmonde (2), Marie-Magdeleine, Ḕve (to his mother), Scènes de Féerie, (full score), Narcise, Les Erinnyes (full score), Le Cid, Bacchus (to his niece), and 20 mélodies, 8vo and 4to; together with: Manon, a de-luxe limited edition (1884), over 30 early editions of airs and extracts from the operas (a few with letters by Massenet loosely inserted), and many collections of mélodies and other works by Massenet, including “A Mignonne”, (“Pour qui sera, Mignonne”), Paris: Baudon, [1869], lithographed portrait of Massenet aged 27. NB: please see the online catalogue for descriptions of these inscribed volumes, 2) scarce orchestral hire scores of operas, including Hérodiade (465 pages), Thaïs (560 pages), Le jongleur de Notre-Dame (412 pages) and Thérèse (355 pages), numbered copies, issued without title pages, together with other full scores of Werther (464 pages), Don Quichotte (422 pages) and Manon (422 pages; with, separately, the ‘Fabliau’ replacing the ‘Gavotte’ in Act 3), Phèdre, (Ouverture, Entr’actes), Le roi de Lahore (overture), Le Cid (ballet), Les Erinnyes (2 copies, one an inscribed proof), and other works, Paris: Heugel, no dates, lithographed music, some photo-reproduced, including 5 volumes in modern blue quarter morocco, large 4to (c.34 x 26cm), a few pages trimmed by the binder 3) Sets of contemporary printed orchestral parts, some marked up in blue crayon etc., for Le Cid (overture), Le jongleur de Notre Dame (‘La légende de la Sauge’), Scènes Alsaciennes (edited by H. Mouton), Scènes pittoresques, Werther (fantaisie mosaïque, edited by Emile Tavan) 4) the contract for Thaïs, signed by composer, librettist and publisher, in which Massenet and Gallet cede exclusive publication rights and copyrights to Heugel (including any alterations and additions that they might make in future), for the price of sixty-thousand francs, to be shared between the three parties and Anatole France, author of the novel upon which the opera is based, 3 pages, 4to, 28 June 1893, loosely inserted in an edition of Thaïs [vocal score], contemporary red half morocco 5) twenty-five first and early editions of the opera librettos, including a volume of three librettos (Marie-Mageleine, Ḕve and Le roi de Lahore), signed and inscribed to Massenet by Louis Gallet (1874-1877), and others recording the original singers: Ḕve,(1875), Esclarmonde (1889), Le mage (1891), Werther (1893), Sapho (1897), Ariane (1906), Thérèse (1907), Don Quichotte (1910), Panurge (1913), Cléopâtre (1914) and others, original wrappers 6) a fine photograph signed and inscribed to the composer Pick-Mangiagalli ("à mon ami Riccardo Pick, J. Massenet, Milano, Oct.1903"; see illustration on page 108), with other early printed images of the composer, including in the score of "A Mignonne" (1869), 7) about one hundred contemporary printed costume designs, including for Werther (a set of five coloured plates, oblong 4to, Heugel), and for Esclarmonde (39), Manon (24) and Le Cid (3), large 8vo, with designs laid down and annotated for Herodiade (27) and others 8) Four large early playbills, including for Don César de Bazan, lithograph by Céléstin Nanteuil (1872), proof copy, with a long autograph musical quotation, signed ( “Pauvre j’ai trainé ma misère au Docteur Joseph Michel cordial souvenir, J. Massenet 1879”), comprising 8 bars from Don César’s couplets in Act 2, original mount, overall size c.81.5 x 59cm, somewhat affected by damp;