HAHN Reynaldo (1874-1947).

Lot 48
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
HAHN Reynaldo (1874-1947).
AUTOGRAPHIC MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT, Nausicaa (1919); ca. 110 and 440 pages in-fol. Manuscript of this opera in its two versions: voice and piano, and orchestral score. This opera in 2 acts, on a libretto by René Fauchois (the librettist of Gabriel Fauré's Pénélope), begun in 1913 and completed at the Argonne front in 1917, was premiered at the Monte-Carlo Opera on April 13, 1919, then directed by Raoul Gunsbourg, with Marthe Davelli (Nausicaa) and Robert Couzinou (Ulysse) in the main roles, the orchestra being conducted by Albert Wolff. The score was published by Heugel in 1919. "Nausicaa, whose calm and harmonious poem is by M. René Fauchois, revives the graceful episode of the Odyssey, when Ulysses, thrown by the storm on the Phaeacian shore, and moved for a moment by the beauty and grace of the princess Nausicaa, nevertheless resumes his fabulous race towards Ithaca and Penelope, not without leaving in tears the sweet young girl who loved him. The music of M. Reynaldo Hahn is of the deepest charm, of the most delicate coloring in its true and pure richness, rising sometimes to high power, and reaching the deepest emotion in the great final scene of the farewell and the departure ", wrote J. Darthenay in Le Figaro of April 16, 1919. The voice-piano manuscript is in blue ink on Lard-Esnault/Bellamy paper at 20 lines, with numerous erasures and corrections; it is the first draft and working manuscript. Act I has 96 pages in a folder with a title (pp. 8 bis-11 and 16-17 are by another hand); it is dated at the end: "Hambourg, Jan. 1913". Act II, in a folder, is incomplete: 15 pages, numbered 80-84, 85/82 (with a double sheet obscured by pinning), 86-[93]; at the end of page 91, the note: "Finished on June 19, 1916 in the attic of Auzéville" has been crossed out as well as the last bars, and two pages have been added. The orchestral score is in blue ink on 24-line paper, and has numerous corrections, crossed-out bars, scratches, and paste-ups. Act I includes pages 23-241 (the beginning is missing, with one page 55-61, plus numerous pages bis and ter), dated at the end: " Grenier d'Auzéville 31 juillet minuit ". Act II consists of a title page and 207 pages. Attached are autograph fragments of the incidental music for Esther (1905, for Sarah Bernhardt): Act II (18 pages, discontinuous pagination), and Act III (9 p., incomplete); and 2 autograph letters concerning proof corrections. Bibliography: Jacques Depaulis, Reynaldo Hahn (Séguier, 2007), p. 95-96; complete text of the libretto, and articles on the creation and performances of the work: http://reynaldo-hahn.net/Html/operasNausicaa.htm.
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