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Pigmalion

Description: This is the 1773 edition of the libretto to the comic opera and vaudeville, "Pigmalion" by Charles-François Panard and Thomas Laffichard. The opera premiered at the Paris Opéra Comique in 1735 . The plot is an adaptation of Ovid's story of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue that he carved. Operatic and ballet representation of the subject of Pigmalion (or Pygmalion) became famous after Antoine Houdar de la Motte's entrée "La sculpture" for the ballet "Le triomphe des arts," … more
Date: 1773
Creator: Panard, Charles-François, d. 1765.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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The Padlock

Description: This is a copy of a ca. 1768 edition of Isaac Bickerstaff libretto for the two-act English comic opera "The Paddlock" by Charles Dibdin. The plot is an adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes's "El celoso extremeño" (translated as, The Jealous Estremaduran). The t.p. features a vignette signed by IJ Taylor [possibly by the London engraver Isaac Taylor (1730-1807)] with four infants. The one at the center is holding several keys and is playing horse riding with a walking stick that has a padlock attac… more
Date: 1768
Creator: Bickerstaff, Isaac, 1735-1812
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Le tableau parlant: comédie-parade, en un acte et en vers

Description: This is a 1773 printed copy of the libretto of "Le tableau parlant" (The talking picture), a one-act comic opera by M. Anseaume, set to music by Grétry. The opera was staged for the first time by the troupe of Italian actors of King Louis XV, on Wednesday, September 20, 1769. The back of the t.p. lists the names of the original actors who performed the characters of the opera at its premier: Isabelle (Madame Trial), [Jean-Louis Laruette] (Cassandre, Isabelle's tutor), [Madame Laruette (Colom… more
Date: 1773
Creator: Anseaume, M. (Louis), 1721-1784
Partner: UNT Libraries Special Collections
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Orfeo ed Euridice

Description: This is the libretto of "Orfeo ed Euridice" by Ranieri de Calzabigi, published in vol 2 of "Raccolta di melodrammi serj scritti nel secolo XVIII." The original volume contains works by Apostolo Zeno, Giuseppe Parini, Marco Coltellini, Castone Rezzonico della Torre, Ranieri de Calsabigi, and F. Saverio de Rogati. On the back of the t.p. appears a quote in Virgil's "Georg.," iv, 465: "Te dulcis conjux, te solo in littore mecum, te veniente die, te discedente canebam." The libretto includes a … more
Date: 1822
Creator: Calzabigi, Ranieri de, 1714-1795
Partner: UNT Music Library
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La fede ne' tradimenti

Description: This is a 1689 copy of Girolamo Gigli's three-act libretto for the opera "La Fede ne' tradimenti," set to music by Giuseppe Fabbrini for the 1689 Carnival season at the Collegio Tolomei in Siena, Italy.
Date: 1689
Creator: Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722
Partner: UNT Music Library
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La Geneviefa

Description: This is a ca. 1685 copy of the three-act libretto of "La Geneviefa" by Girolamo Gigli. The work was dedicated to Prince Francesco Maria of Toscana. The Sienese composer Giuseppe Fabbrini set the libretto to music for an opera staged at the theater of the Collegio Tolomei in Siena. Although the music of the opera is lost, the remark, "Il Sign. Giuseppe Fabrini, che ha data l'anima al verso con l'armonia della musica ..." in the preface of the libretto confirms Fabbrini's setting it to music. C… more
Date: 1685
Creator: Gigli, Girolamo, 1660-1722
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Momie

Description: This is a ca. 1778 libretto for the burlesque opera in three acts "Momie" by a Jean Étiennethat Despréaux. The opera is a parody based on Leblanc du Roullet's libretto of "Iphigénie en Aulide," an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The libretto includes the titles of the tunes at the opening of each scene. Page 6 of the library's copy is incorrectly numbered as page 9.
Date: 1778?
Creator: Despréaux, Jean Étienne, 1748-1820.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Prima la musica e poi le parole

Description: This is a copy of Giovanni Battista Casti's libretto for the comic opera "Prima la musica e poi le parole". On the back of the t.p. appears a list of characters and names Antonio Salieri as the composer of the music. The one-act opera was commissioned by Emperor Joseph II. Members of the Burgtheater's Italian troupe premiered it at the Schönbrunn Palace on February 7, 1786. The library's copy is bound with the libretto of Zaccaria Valaresso's "Rutzvanscad, il giovine."
Date: 1786
Creator: Casti, Giovanni Battista, 1724-1803.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Proserpine, tragedie en musique

Description: This is a copy of the libretto of "Proserpine," a tragedy in five acts by Phillipe Quinault. The tragedy was set to music by Jean Baptiste Lully, superintendent chamber composer of the court of Louis XIV, and performed in the King's presence at Saint Germain-en-Laye on February, [3] 1680. The month and year of the opera premiere are indicated on the t.p., but the day of performance was left out with a blank space. The library's copy shows errors in pagination. The number of p. 25 was scribbl… more
Date: 1688
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Rutzvanscad, il giovine

Description: This is a copy of Cattuffio Panchianio's "Rutzvanscad, il Giovine," a parody of Greek tragedy. The library's copy is bound with the libretto of Giovanni Battista Casti's "Prima la musica e poi le parole." Clarification notes relating to terms and characters of the tragedy appear on the back of p.79 together with a list of printing errors.
Date: 1724
Creator: Valaresso, Zaccaria, 1686-1769
Partner: UNT Music Library

Finta pazza, drama.

Description: Although Sacrati’s La finta pazza (1641) was immensely popular and influential, the opera has received little discussion in modern scholarship, due in large part to the absence of the music (even the number of extant copies of librettos is very small). Since Lorenzo Bianconi discovery of a score that was used for traveling productions, the opera has received increasing attention.
Date: 1644
Creator: Strozzi, Giulio, 1583-1652
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Amadis, tragedie en musique

Description: Libretto of the 1684 opera "Amadis," by Philippe Quinolt. The premiere of Amadis was delayed for a year after Lully completed its composition in order to allow the proper mourning period for Marie Thérese, wife of Louis XIV, who died in July of 1683. While still abstaining from theater at court, Louis XIV at last allowed the first public presentation of "Amadis" at the Opéra in Paris on 18 January 1684. It was an immediate public success. On the title page for this opera, there is a lithograph… more
Date: 1684
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Astrée

Description: Libretto of the 1691 opera "Astrée" by Jean de la Fontaine. Pascal Collasse composed the music of the opera which premiered under the title "Astrée et Céladon" on November 25, 1692.
Date: 1691
Creator: La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621-1695
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Cendrillon

Description: Libretto of the 1759 pastiche-style comic opera "Cendrillon," by Louis Anseaume. The songs were contributed by the singer-composer Jean-Louis Laruette and Egidio Duni, which they likely adapted from fashionable tunes. "Cendrillon" (Cinderella in English) premiered in Paris at Foire St-Germain on February 21, 1759. The opera underwent two revisions before the definitive version of 1764. Anseaume adapted the plot the fairy tale by Charles Perrault. This copy includes (from pp.54-63) notated m… more
Date: 1759
Creator: Anseaume, M. (Louis), 1721-1784
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Enée et Lavinie

Description: Libretto of the opera "Enée et Lavinie" by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. Pascal Collasse composed the music of the opera which premiered on November 7, 1690. The plot, which Bovier de Fontenelle adapted from Virgil's "Aeneid, Book vii," revolves around the marriage of Enée (i.e., Aeneas) to the Latin bride Lavinia.
Date: 1690
Creator: Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757
Partner: UNT Music Library
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La favola di Orfeo

Description: Libretto of the opera "La favola di Orfeo" in several verse forms. Poliziano's version of the legend of Orfeo differs from the story in Monteverdi or Gluck's operas. In Poliziano's ending, Orpheus is torn to pieces by the maenads (or Bacchantes). This copy includes Bernardino Baldi's eclogue "Celeo e l'Orto," a culinary poem that describes the production of polenta.
Date: 1749
Creator: Poliziano, Angelo, 1454-1494. & Baldi, Bernardino, 1553-1617.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Isis, tragedie en musique

Description: Libretto of the opera "Isis," by Philippe Quinolt. The music of the opera was composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully's and premiered on January 5, 1677 at St. Germain-en-Laye. The libretto is a loose adaptation of one of the episodes in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The plot resembles that of Lully's previous opera, Atys. It is set in pastoral and divine realms. In the opera, Jupiter courts the nymph Io, and jealous Juno imprisons her under the hundred watchful eyes of Argus. The god Mercury helps Io … more
Date: 1677
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Jeannot et Colin

Description: This is a ca. 1857 copy of the libretto of Jeannot et Colin, an opera by Charles Etienne with music by Nicolo Isouard. The opera premiered in Paris at the theater of the Opéra-Comique on 17 October 1814. The expressive melodies of the opera as well as its performers ensured its success. The opera was staged again on 14 October 1857. The first page of the library's copy contain the names of the performers that participated in both productions.
Date: 1857
Creator: Etienne, Charles Guillaume, 1777-1845.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Le tonnelier

Description: Libretto of the comic opera "Le tonnelier" (The cooper) by Nicolas-Médard Audinot in collaboration with Antoine-François Quétant. The music of this one-act opera is a pasticcio of works by Gossec and other contemporaneous composers. Typical of the genre, the opera contains a variety of musical forms (airs, romance, vaudeville, and recitatives) and the dialogues are interspersed with additional airs, possibly using popular tunes. This copy includes (on pp. 52 and 54-56) notated melodies of air… more
Date: 1765
Creator: Audinot, Nicolas Médard, 1732-1801. & Quétant, Antoine-François, 1733-1823.
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Phaeton

Description: Libretto of the opera "Phaeton," by Philippe Quinolt. The plot is based on an episode in Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the plot, Phaethon, son of Climène and Soleil [the Sun], is filled with excessive ambition and pride. He abandons his beloved, Théone, and requests to the King of Egypt the hand of his daughter Libie. Climène, who after consulting the sea god Proteus knows of the demise that her son's avarice will bring upon himself, tries in vain to discourage his ambition for the throne of Egypt a… more
Date: 1683
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Proserpine

Description: Libretto of the opera "Proserpine," by Philippe Quinolt; the plot is based on the story of the abduction of Proserpine and her descent into Hades, and also on Ovid's Metamorphoses, its original source. In the plot, Cerés, the goddess of the earth, summons the nymph Aréthuse to guard her daughter Proserpine. Aréthuse protests, and tells Cerés of her love for Alphée, the river god, but the anxious mother warns her she should not let her own feelings interfere with the assigned task. Alphée assume… more
Date: 1680
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Roland

Description: Libretto of the opera "Roland" by Philippe Quinault; he based the plot of Roland on medieval legends of chivalry, setting episodes from Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem "Orlando furioso." Roland centers on the conflict between duty and love and the intervention of goddesses. This copy includes includes handwritten annotations of performers' names, and a frontispiece engraving undersigned by Jean Dolivar (i.e., Juan Dolivar) that illustrates one of the scenes from the opera. Jean-Baptiste Lully co… more
Date: 1685
Creator: Quinault, Philippe, 1635-1688
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Thetis et Pelée

Description: Libretto of the opera "Thetis et Pelée" by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. In the plot, the Nereid Thetis is wooed by Jupiter and Neptune, as well as by a mortal, Pelée (Peleus). When a storm caused by Neptune disrupts a celebration Jupiter gave in honor of Thetis, an oracle is consulted, which foretells that Thetis's husband will one day be less powerful than his son. Neptune and Jupiter withdraw their claims, and Thetis marries Pelée. Pascal Collasse composed the music of the opera which pr… more
Date: 1689
Creator: Fontenelle, M. de (Bernard Le Bovier), 1657-1757
Partner: UNT Music Library
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Zephire et Flore

Description: This is a digital reproduction of the 1688 libretto of the opera "Zephire et Flore" by Michel Du Boullay. The music of the opera is attributed to Louis and Jean-Louis Lully, sons of Jean-Baptiste Lully. It was performed for the first time on March 22, 1688 at the Palais Royale in Paris.
Date: 1688
Creator: Duboullay, Michel
Partner: UNT Music Library
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