Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896). Autograph musical manuscript, L - Lot 168

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.