Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - photo 1
Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - photo 2
Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - photo 3
Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) - photo 4

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)

Lot 86
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 1 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053200
Lot 86 | Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Estimate value
£ 2 000 – 3 000
Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Early manuscript copy of his opera La ballerina amante, n.p. [Italy, ?Naples], n.d. [second half 18th century, after 1782]
Rare: no other manuscript of this Cimarosa opera has appeared at international auction. From the Talleyrand music collection.

Full score of the complete opera, in two volumes, written by at least two scribes in brown ink. c.305 leaves in total, 210 x 280mm, paper ruled with 10-16 staves per page, title pages (I: ‘La Ballerina Amante/ musica/ Del Sign:r D: Domenico Cimarosa’; II: ‘La Ballerina Amante/ Drama Giocosa/ musica/ Del Sign:r D: Domenico Cimarosa’) and libretto in Italian. 18th-century Italian quarter sheep over marbled paper boards, leather gilt book-labels on upper covers.

Provenance:
(1) Formerly in the Talleyrand music collection, originally assembled under Louise Fidèle Durand de St. Eugène-Montigny (1751- d. after 1776), singer, harpist and wife of Louis Marie de Talleyrand-Périgord (1738-1799), French ambassador the King of Sicily at Naples from 1785 to 1799; both volumes with a leather book-label on the upper cover stamped ‘Mrs de Talleyrand’. The collection was continued by her son –

(2) Augustin Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord (1770-1832). An 18th- or 19th-century shelf-marks added in pen to the flyleaves read ‘V.M. 881 B.1.’ and ‘V.M. 881 B.2.’.

(3) Bernard Quaritch, London; acquired December 2010.

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 5479.

'Cimarosa’s reputation in his last years, and during the early part of the 19th century, was unparalleled in Italian opera until Rossini. His facility at writing music resulted in the creation of almost 60 stage works, most of which were comic pieces. His operas were performed on all the major European stages, including Prague, Copenhagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg, Hamburg, London and Berlin. Although Cimarosa revised some of his earlier compositions to suit the Neapolitan tastes his music had a broad, international appeal: some of his operas were still being played in Naples as late as 1811' (see Johnson & Lazarevich, ‘Cimarosa, Domenico’. Grove Music Online, 2001).

La ballerina amante was first performed in Naples in 1782; the libretto was published the following year, but the orchestral score did not make it into print. The opera was often performed in a reduced two-act version: the present manuscript includes a long Finale at the end of Act II followed by a short third act.
Artist:Domenico Cimarosa (1749 - 1801)
Place of origin:Italy
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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