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Don Giovanni premiered at Prague’s National Theater in 1787 but was not produced in London until a full thirty years later. A succession of King’s Theatre managers “rejected Mozart’s music and united with their aristocratic patrons against him to form what came to be known in English operatic history as ‘the Italian cabal’” (D’Arcy Wood, p. 375). When it finally opened in London, “the audience for the 1817 Don Giovanni extended far beyond the aristocratic habitués of the King’s Theatre in the West End. The press recorded unprecedented crowds at the April 12 premiere . . . In an age when operas rarely played more than a few nights in a seascin, Don Giovanni ran a record twenty-three nights to ‘overflowing houses’, and would have played more often had not the aristocratic subscribers insisted on the insertion of a conventional baroque opera seria, Paer’s Agnese , to break the Mozartian monopoly” (ibid., pp. 368–9). Octavo (177 × 112 mm). Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, title to spine in gilt, covers and edges ruled in gilt, gilt rope-twist roll to turn-ins, brown endpapers, edges gilt. Extremities rubbed, title page laid down, loss to upper corner of leaf A2, stab-stitch holes to gutters. A very good copy, handsomely bound. ¶ Gillen D’Arcy Wood, “Cockney Mozart: The Hunt Circle, the King’s Theatre, and ‘Don Giovanni’ in Studies in Romanticism , Fall, 2005, vol. 44, No. 3 (Fall, 2005), pp. 367-397; Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life, 1995. £2,750 [152969]
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140 NONESUCH PRESS: HERODOTUS. The History. London: The Nonesuch Press, 1935 First Nonesuch Press edition, limited to 675 copies of which this is number 381, a superb example of book design and presswork. Quarto. Original blue quarter vellum, blue cloth sides, spine lettered and decorated in gilt with vermiculated rules extending onto sides, top edge rough gilt, others untrimmed. Title page printed in red and black, wood-engraved half- title and 9 similar headpieces by V. le Campion, 9 engraved maps by T. Poulton, of which 7 are double-page, to rear. Spine a little faded, though not as extensively as usually encountered, slight sunning to covers, contents fresh and clean. A very good copy indeed. £1,500 [152889]
139 NICHOLSON, William. The Book of Blokes. [London: Faber & Faber: 1929] A SUNRISE AND AN EXTRA BLOKE FOR HELEN First edition, presentation copy, inscribed inside the front cover, “For Helen Lubbock from William Nicholson, New Year 1930” with a lovely original crayon sketch of a sunrise in several colours. This is one of the scarce copies with an original “Bloke” added in blue and brown by Nicholson to one of the blank pages and signed with his initials. Nicholson’s note to Lubbock on the first blank, rubbed but still legible, says “please find an original Bloke on page 15”. Octavo. Original black and white pictorial boards. In a black cloth solander case. Drawings printed in various colours throughout, one page with an original drawing in blue and brown initialled by the artist. Excellent condition, a sound and fresh copy. £2,500 [152738]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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