Author: ALGAROTTI (Francesco):
Title: An Essay on the Opera Written in Italian by Count Algarotti.
Description: London, Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers..., 1767. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, pp. vi [vii Contents, viii blank], 192; lacks half-title. BOUND WITH: CAMPBELL (Thomas): An Essay on English Poetry. Boston: Published by Wells and Lilly, 1819. 12mo (in 6s), pp. 231 [232 blank, 233 - 234 adverts], engraved portrait of Campbell as frontispiece. 2 volumes in 1, bound in 19th century half calf, marbled boards, rebacked with old spine gilt in compartments (but worn and rubbed) laid down, newspaper clippings on end-papers and motto pasted above imprint on Campbell's book. A rather strange combination of two disparate works. Algarotti (1712 - 1764) wrote te most significant treatise on opera published in Europe in the 18th century. It was published in 1755 in Italy, Saggio sopra l'opera in musica. New Grove says of it that it was the "best-grounded and most wide-ranging of [18th century] critiques, also the one that received the widest diffusion through reprinting and translation. It proposed that all parts of music, including singing, be subordinated to a unifying poetic idea...."

Keywords: opera music prose


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