Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896). Autograph musical manuscript, Le Songe. Récitatifs; 79pages in-fol. Recitatives, music and lyrics, for Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (A Midsummer Night's Dream), a comic opera in three acts, with libretto by Joseph-Bernard Rosier and Adolphe de Leuven, featuring William Shakespeare, Falstaff, Lord Latimer, Queen Elisabeth I and her maid Olivia. The work premiered at the Opéra-Comique on April 20, 1850, with Couderc as Shakespeare, Battaille as Falstaff and Sophie Grimm as Olivia; Delphine Ugalde, for whom Thomas had written the ailing role of Élisabeth, was replaced by Constance Lefebvre. Le Songe was a great success, and was revived in this theater on September 22, 1859; it was perhaps with a view to reviving the work for the 1867 Universal Exhibition that Ambroise Thomas decided to replace the spoken passages with recitatives. The manuscript, in violet or black ink, on 20-line Lard-Esnault paper, gives the song, lyrics and accompaniment indications on two staves, with some instrumentation indications. It shows erasures and corrections in black pencil, with passages crossed out and redone. These recitatives were published in the Italian/French chant-piano edition (Heugel, 1890).