This opera opened April 23 1881 at the Opera Comique and ran for 578 performances at both the Opera Comique and Savoy Theatres. The county dames are in love with two poets while the poets are both in love with Patience the village milkmaid. The brigade men don't see the point to aesthetics but decide they had better give it a try to win the women's love.

'Faust? stands for the composer Gounod himself, who was torn between the expression of excessive sensuality and a deep spirituality which he was searching for in his Catholic faith. As such, in this most important musical setting of Goethe's drama, the work was given a deeply personal interpretation. With a detailed Foreword (Fr/Eng/Ger) this new edition presents the genesis of the work with its various, during Gounod's lifetime, completely sung versions.The main version of our edition was performed at the Paris Opéra on 3 March 1869. However, simple cross references in the score enable a reconstruction of the earlier and later stages of this work for performance. Rounding off this publication is a critical edition of the libretto. All available sources are described and the Critical Commentary provides information about any changes made to the individual numbers.The two earlier Faust versions with spoken dialogue will be included in a separate volume within this series (in preparation, BA 8714). / Opéra

'Das Rheingold' is the first part of Wagner's 'Ring Cycle'.Alberich a gnome of the Nibelung discovers the all-powerful Rhine Gold and fashions a ring out of it knowing that whoever wears it will rule the world but must renounce love. The gods Wotan and his wife Fricka have build a new castle and paid the giants by promising them Fricka's sister Freia who grows the golden apples that give the gods their power. After a struggle she is kidnapped and all the gods begin to age and weaken. To get her back they decide to steal the Ring and bargain with the giants. Meanwhile Alberich has been forcing other to mine gold and Mime makes a helmet the 'Tarnhelm' out ofit thinking this will help him seize the Ring. Alberich steals the Tarnhelm but the gods arrive and trick both it the Ring and his gold out of him taking him prisoner. In a fury he curses the Ring to bring death and envy to all who posess it. The gods use the Ring and helmet to bargain with the giants. They win Freia back and go home to their new castle but as they leave the giant Fafner murders his brother Fasolt to claim the ring continuing its bloody history... This is the Schirmer edition of the Vocal Score with an English translation by Frederick Jameson.

William Walton Edition vol. 2 2/e Hardback-This new edition of The Bear is based on a full assessment of all extant sources and takes account of Walton's various revisions. A new vocal score is also published on sale and new orchestral material fully compatible with this score is available for hire.

Iain Bell's A Harlot's Progress is an Opera in six scenes featuring a libretto by Peter Ackroyd based upon William Hogarth’s 1730 etchings of the same name.This is a full score for Soprano Mezzo-Soprano (x2) Baritone Tenor and Bass soloists with SATB chorus and Orchestra.

Premiered in Vienna in February 1892 under the direction of Hans Richter Massenet's Werther has proven an enduring work one of the composer's most tightly constructed and dramatically urgent. The libretto was fashioned bywriters Georges Hartmann Edouard Blau and Paul Millet after Goethe's 'Sorrows of Young Werther'. Charlotte the eldest daughter of a baliff is engaged to Albert. In his absence she is escorted to the local ball by ayoung visiting poet Werther. Albert returns unexpectedly disappointed at not finding Charlotte he promises her sister he will return in the morning. At the ball Werther falls in love with Charlotte but realises that Alberthas returned and urges Charlotte not to break her promise to marry Albert. Three months later Charlotte and Albert now married walk across the town square on their way to church followed by Werther who is stilldistraught. Albert realizes that Werther must be in love with his wife and Charlotte tells him he must leave town until Christmas. Werther rushes away contemplating suicide.Alone at home on Christmas Eve as Charlotterereads the dejected love letters written to her by Werther he appears and reads to her a passage from a poem where the poet foresees his own death. Charlotte begs him to stop and he realises she loves him too. But she runs fromhis embrace and Werther leaves resolved to die. Albert enters and a message arrives from Werther asking to borrow Albert's pistol. Her reaction convinces him of her love for Werther. The pistols are dispensed and when Albert hasgone she hurries off arriving at his quarters to find him dying. She declares her love and he begs forgiveness and dies.This is the Schirmer edition of the Libretto in French and English.

Per Gli Sponsali Di Teti e Peleo - HWV 73-The main text of this edition of Handel?s wedding serenata ?Parnasso in festa per gli sponsali di Teti e Peleo? (HWV 73) is based on the version used for the work?s first performances in March of 1734. Three appendices retrace the complex history of the work significantly different versions of which were used for revival performances in 1737 1740 and 1741. Included are abandoned and modified parts of the score as well as a documentation of changes made to the characters.Handel composed ?Parnasso in festa? for the wedding of Anne Princess Royal and Prince William of Orange which took place on March 14 1734 in London. As Handel?s contribution to the publicfestivities the serenata was performed the evening before the nuptials at King?s Theatre in the Haymarket. The bridal couple attended the performance.While the Italian text of the serenata was newly set most likely by Giacomo Rossi most of the music was drawn from pieces of Handel?s earlier works among them ?Athalia? from ?Radamisto? (HWV 12a) ?Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno? (HWV 46a) and ?Delirio amoroso? (HWV 99). Newly composed parts are limited to eight vocal pieces the sinfonia at the beginning of part 3 and the beginning of the overture. The available source material reflects the history of the work: There is no autograph composition score while the conducting score reflects a collaboration between Handel and his main copyist John Christopher Smith senior. However composition scores of individual newly composed pieces have been preserved.New edition based on the latest research after thorough examination of all relevant primary and secondary sourcesExtensive editorial Foreword about the work?s conception mythological background transmission reception and a survey of sources (Ger/Eng) with extensive critical report (Eng)Selected musical facsimiles as well as complete facsimile of the printed libretto of 1734Urtext of the Halle Handel EditionFull score (BA10718-01) and vocal score (BA10718-90) available for salePerformance material (BA10718-72) available for hire

Ed. critica delle opere di A. Vivaldi - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte di A. Frigé-The present reduction derives from the critical edition of the score just published in this catalog. La Griselda was composed and performed in Venice in the spring of 1735 for the occasion of the Ascensiontide fair (Sensa). The taskof adapting the libretto by Apostolo Zeno to the particular exigencies of the production was assigned to a young writer of comedies attached to the company led by Giuseppe Imer: Carlo Goldoni. The latter immortalized in his Mémoires hismeeting with Vivaldi and the composer?s inseparable prima donna the contralto Anna Giraud confessing to having been forced against his will to ?assassinate? Zeno?s drama at the composer?s whim. La Griselda was favourably received bythe audience at the San Samuele theatre remained the sole opera by Vivaldi to be staged at a theatre owned by the powerful Grimani family. The present edition includes a synthetic introduction of the historical context the description of the mainsource employed and a choice of the critical Notes to the musical text.