Rossini, Gioachino, (1792-1868)

comprising a chamber version of "Cara per te quest' anima", the third and final part of the duet for Rinaldo and Armida in Act 1 [No.5: "Amor! possente nome!"], boldly notated for soprano and tenor voices and piano, on two systems of four staves per page, thirty-two bars music in all, inscribed and dated by the composer at the end ("Le 17 Juin 1829 Paris B. Montmartre No: 10")

3 pages, oblong 4to (c.26.5 x 32.5cm), 8-stave paper, inscribed in another hand: "Rossini a Beauchèsne", Paris, 17(?) June 1829 

cf: G. Rossini, Edizione critica delle opere di Gioachino Rossini, I/22, Armida, edited by C.S. Brauner and P.B. Brauner, (1997).

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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UNRECORDED. Operatic manuscripts by Rossini are extremely rare at auction. This manuscript seems to be completely unknown and does not feature in the critical edition of the opera (1997). Rossini probably arranged this excerpt from the celebrated duet for a private performance at his home, no.10 Boulevard Montmartre, where he lived from August 1824 until his departure for Bologna in August 1829. This is the period of his French Grand operas, culminating with Guillaume Tell. The main melodic material for Armida and Rinaldo is present here, shorn of repeats and instrumental links and with a curtailed cadenza, more suited to a chamber performance. Armida was not one of Rossini's more successful Neapolitan operas, although 'Amor! Possente nome!' was regarded by Stendhal as his greatest duet. It was one of only two excerpts published by Ricordi when the opera first appeared in 1817. Rossini never staged Armida in Paris, although three separate publishers brought out editions there during the 1820s.