W.A. Mozart. First edition of the full score of "Don Giovanni", 1801

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Il Dissoluto Punito osia Il Don Giovanni Dramma giocoso in due Atti posto in Musica da Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [full score] [K.527], Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, [1801]

FIRST EDITION OF THE FULL SCORE, 590 pages, oblong 4to (24.3 x 32.8cm), engraved title with vignette (by Bolt after Kinninger) showing the Commendatore and Don Giovanni in the supper scene, additional title in German to each volume, cast list, index, type-set music, text in Italian and German, manuscript annotation to fore-edges ("D. Juan V.I [...Vol II]"), library stamps of the [Royal] College of Organists, note in the hand of Albi Rosenthal on inside front cover, signed and inscribed by the singer John Ella on the front endpaper ("J. Ella The gift of Miss Cornewall 1860"), without wrappers and printed German libretto by Rochlitz, nineteenth-century half calf, rebacked, some spotting and browning, light damp-staining to the margins of a few leaves

The full orchestral score of Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's greatest works, and for many the greatest of all operas. This was the first of Mozart's operas to be published for voices and orchestra. Fuld disputes Haberkamp's assertion that the separate printed German libretto by Friedrich Rochlitz was included with the earliest copies, being of the opinion that it was added later to correct errors. It is missing here, as from nearly all the copies listed by Haberkamp in her bibliography.

LITERATURE:

Haberkamp pp.295-298 (plates 254-257); RISM M 4502; Fuld, p.371 n.3; Hoboken, xi 341; Hirsch, ii 645

PROVENANCE:

Miss Cornewall; John Ella (1860); [Royal] College of Organists; Otto Haas