HAHN Reynaldo (1874 - 1947)

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Lot n° 82
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8000 - 10000 EUR
HAHN Reynaldo (1874 - 1947)
autograph musical manuscript, La Fête chez Thérèse, (1910); 200 and 387 pages in-fol. (36 x 27.5 cm). Important orchestral score of Reynaldo Hahn's first ballet music, for the Paris Opera. La Fête chez Thérèse, a ballet-pantomime in two acts with a libretto by Catulle Mendès, was commissioned from Reynaldo Hahn by the directors of the Opéra in July 1907; the score was completed by June 1909, and rehearsals began in October. The work was premiered at the Paris Opera on February 16, 1910, with staging and choreography by Thérèse Stichel, sets by Landrin and René Rochette, costumes by Joseph Pinchon, and with Carlotta Zambelli (Mimi Pinson) and Aïda Boni (the Duchess Thérèse) in the principal roles. The orchestra was conducted by Paul Vidal. The work, very well edited, was a great success. The score was published the same year 1910 by Heugel. Catulle Mendès was inspired by Victor Hugo's famous poem, La Fête chez Thérèse, in Les Contemplations, and superimposed a love story between the grisette Mimi Pinson and the fashionable poet Théodore. The action takes place in 1841, after the success of the ballet Giselle. The first act takes place in the salon-workshop of the milliner Mme Palmyre, where the dancer Carlotta Grisi and the duchess Thérèse, who has come to do her fitting, are slowly defying the rules; Théodore, who has come to see Mimi Pinson, falls in love with Thérèse. The second act is devoted to the beautiful party at Thérèse's, where an XVIIIth century entertainment inspired by L'Embarquement pour Cythère is given; intrigue between Thérèse and Théodore, who, tired of the coquetry of the duchess, will return to Mimi. Gabriel Fauré, in Le Figaro of February 17, 1910, praised the score: "M. Reynaldo Hahn has treated the first scene of La Fête chez Thérèse with a witty verve that does not waver for a moment. There is nothing more cheerful than this rendition of the "contredanse" of our fathers, nothing more fi ne amusing than the dance lesson in which he has exploited with such happiness the good old waltz of Giselle. This first picture, "Chez Palmyre", is a very joyful parody which, however, never ceases to be musical. As for the second picture, it is drawn with an artistic skill, a variety and a taste quite charming; the pastiches of the time appear there only as much as it was necessary and always keep a very personal physiognomy: they hold of the evocation and not of the imitation". The score includes the following numbers. - Act I. At Palmyra. Introduction; Dance of the little apprentices; The Contredanse of the Grisettes; Entrance of Carlotta Grisi; Waltz of Giselle; Dance Lesson and Waltz; Entrance of the Duchess Thérèse; Scene of the Fitting; Theodore and Mimi Pinson. - Act II. Fête galante chez la Duchesse Thérèse. Prelude; Moving picture; Interlude: Gilles and Arlequine; Danse galante; Violent dance; Mimi Pinson's dance (Danse triste); Tango; Menuet pompeux; Nocturne; The Duchess Thérèse and Mimi Pinson; Mimed duet; Final. The manuscript, in blue ink on 22-line paper, contains numerous erasures and corrections (some in red ink), stickers, scratches, cross-outs, and annotations in blue or red pencil; it served as a conductor for the performances. One carried on the manuscript, mainly for the first act, the principal episodes of the action: "Curtain. Humming, stirring of the seamstresses who cut, sew around the table. The girls come and go, fight, jostle each other, fight. Dance of the little apprentices. Mimi Pinson explains to the whole table that: she, Mimi, and Zélia, and Rougette, and Blanchette, they have lovers with long hair, fine moustaches, who are students or poets... Young men with whom, on Sundays, they go to pick strawberries in the woods... or dance a contredanse at the Chaumière... Now, through a small door, Theodore, Rodolphe, Albert, Roderick entered silently... They fall at the knees of the young girls, offering them bunches of two-penny violets. The four young girls are afraid that Madame Palmyre will surprise these forbidden visits. They want to send their lovers away. They refuse to go away; then they give pennies to the apprentices who put themselves in observation near the doors... while the four grisettes return towards the young men who embrace them. The Contredanse of the Grisettes. But the little apprentices rush in. "Here come some beautiful ladies, customers!" - They are the dancers of the opera who have come to try on their costumes for the party at Duchess Therese's house. The young men have hardly time to disappear from screen to screen. Théodore, leaving last, obtains from Mimi Pinson the permission to return. Entrance of Carlotta Grisi and her friends. They are airy and disdainful. Carlotta :
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