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Gluck: La Semiramide 1 | MS 5569

MS 5569

GLUCK: LA SEMIRAMIDE

MS 5569
MS Short Title GLUCK: LA SEMIRAMIDE
Text

Christoph Willibald Gluck: La Semiramide Riconosciuta, opera per il clavicembalo, authorised copy with Gluck's personal seals
Description

MS in Italian on paper, Wien, ca 1760-1787, 207 ff (complete) 23x35 cm, ruled with 8 staves (19x25 cm) notated on 2-6 stave systems by professional copyist, title page with two paper blindstamped authorisation seals with Lyre design and Gluck's name, scored for soloists, chorus and keyboard accompaniment, including the Italian text of Metastasio's libretto, without the recitativo passages.
Binding

Disbound, but in original state of 24 quires, contained in a cloth folding case.
Context

The original autograph from 1748 does not survive. According to the Gluck-Gesamtausgabe only three more 18th century MS copies survive: (Wien, Meiningen and Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). It is not known whether any of these also are authorized copies. The score was not printed until mid 19th c.
Provenance

Wendy Cruise Rare Books and Manuscripts, London, March 2016
Commentary La Semiramide Riconosciuta is the first opera of Gluck (1714-1787), which premiered on 14 May 1748 at the Wien Burghtheater. The complex plot unveils in Babylon in the 6th c. BC at the court of the Royal palace with its legendary Hanging Gardens overlooking the Tower of Babel (see MS 2063).
Place of origin Vienna, Austria
Dates ca 1760-1787