Le Barbier de Seville

Paris: Delarue, c1900. Leather. Very Good. 7" by 4". None. A smartly bound copy of Beaumarchais' play 'Le Barbier de Séville'. Le Barbier de Séville was initially conceived as a comic opera, and was rejected as such in 1772 by the Comédie Italienne. The play as it is now known was written in 1773, but, due to legal and political problems of the author, it was not performed until February 23, 1775, at the Comédie Française in the Tuileries. It is the first play in a trilogy of which the other constituents are The Marriage of Figaro, and The Guilty Mother. Though the play was poorly received at first, Beaumarchais worked some fast editing of the script, turning it into a roaring success after three days. The play's title might be a pun on Tirso de Molina's earlier play El Burlador de Sevilla (The Trickster of Seville). Mozart wrote some variations on one of its songs, "Je suis Lindor." Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732 – 1799) was a watchmaker, inventor, musician, politician, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms dealer, and revolutionary. He was best known, however, for his theatrical works, especially the three Figaro plays. This volume bears the bookplate of The Right Hon. Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay. He served as British Ambassador to the United States of America from 1929 to 1939. In the original quarter morocco binding with marbled paper to the boards. Externally, smart. Light wear to the extremities. Minor rubbing to the boards with some loss to the extremities. Bookplate to the front pastedown. Internally, firmly bound Pages are bright with the odd spot. Very Good