Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou les Talents Liriques, Ballet représenté pour la premiere fois, par l’Académie royale de musique, Au mois de May 1739. Dédié a S. A. S. Madame la Duchesse Douairiere, par M. Rameau. Le Prix, en blanc, 12. liv. & 14. liv. relié.
Paris: L’Aueur; La Veuve Boivin; M. Le Clair, 1739. First edition. In contemporary leather. Gilt spine and edges. Title vignette on spine. Paris: L’Aueur; La Veuve Boivin; M. Le Clair, 1739. [4] 107 [1 (blank)] 97–116 2e/105–2e/110 117–181 [1 (blank)] p. / Panels blind ruled. Tinted edges. Front free endpaper creased, upper outer corner torn. Prices on the title page canceled and corrected in contemporary ink. Contemporary ownership inscription covered by mounted paper on title page and p. 1. Light foxing, spots occasionally. Binding rubbed, somewhat worn at the extremities, corners bumped. Overall in very good condition.
Les Fêtes d’Hébé was Rameau’s fourth work for the stage, second opera-ballet, and one of his most popular works, premiered at the Paris Opéra on 21 May 1739, performed eighty times just in its first year, and over two-hundred times between 1739 and 1765.
[Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) was a “French composer and theorist. He was one of the greatest figures in French musical history, a theorist of European stature and France’s leading 18th-century composer. He made important contributions to the cantata, the motet and, more especially, keyboard music, and many of his dramatic compositions stand alongside those of Lully and Gluck as the pinnacles of pre-Revolutionary French opera.” (GMO)
Literature: [GMO] Sadler, G., & Christensen, T. Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 7 Oct. 2022, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000022832.
First edition of Rameau’s celebrated opéra-ballet Les Fêtes d’Hébé.
Price: €8,000.00