Details
SAINT-SAÉNS, Camille (1835-1921). Autograph manuscript, n.d. [c.1890], an extract from the libretto of his opera Ascanio, elegant drawing of a flower at foot, with a verse quatrain referring to it, two pages, folio.
A transcription of the libretto for part of Act I scene iv, in which Cellini agrees to cast his statue in gold when the King accedes to his outrageous demand for the grant of the Hotel Nesle. Saint-Saëns' quatrain on the flower is an elusive epigram: 'Et sachez bien que c'est une dérision Fantasque et surhumaine De croire que ceci soit un échantillon De la flore Africaine'.
Saint-Saëns's opera Ascanio, with a libretto by Louis Gallet after the play Benvenuto Cellini by Paul Meurice, was first performed on 21 March 1890 at the Paris Opera. The present text is presumably a revision by Saint-Saëns of Gallet's text; it agrees with the printed score except for the omission of three words and the alteration of another.
A transcription of the libretto for part of Act I scene iv, in which Cellini agrees to cast his statue in gold when the King accedes to his outrageous demand for the grant of the Hotel Nesle. Saint-Saëns' quatrain on the flower is an elusive epigram: 'Et sachez bien que c'est une dérision Fantasque et surhumaine De croire que ceci soit un échantillon De la flore Africaine'.
Saint-Saëns's opera Ascanio, with a libretto by Louis Gallet after the play Benvenuto Cellini by Paul Meurice, was first performed on 21 March 1890 at the Paris Opera. The present text is presumably a revision by Saint-Saëns of Gallet's text; it agrees with the printed score except for the omission of three words and the alteration of another.
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