Romeo i Dhul'etta. pervaia siuita. Dlia bol'shogo simfonicheskogo orchestra. Partitura. Op. 64 Bis. ["Romeo and Juliette": first Suite for a large symphony orchestra. Score. Op. 64 Bis.]. Romeo et Juliette. Première Suite pour grand orchestre symphonique. Partition d'orchestre. Op. 64bis de Prokofiev (Prokof'ev), Sergei - 1938

1938. Moscow: Muzgiz, 1938. In Russian and French. Quarto (30.5 × 23 cm). Original quarter cloth boards; 131, [1] pp. Light soil to boards; wrapper edges frayed, internally very good. First edition. The first published excerpt from Sergei Prokofiev's 1935 ballet "Romeo and Juliette," this piece was first performed at the Moscow Philharmonic in November 1936. The complete ballet premiered in Brno, Czech Republic only in 1938 and in Soviet Russia not until 1940, leading the ballerina Galina Ulanova (who danced the part of Juliette) to joke: "Never was a tale of greater woe than Prokofiev's music for Romeo." Comissioned initially by the Kirov Theater (today Mariinsky Theater) in Leningrad, the comission fell though and was picked up instead by the Bolshoi Theater only to be stalled due to the overhaul of the theater staff. Prokofiev's departure from Shakespeare's tragedy, providing the ballet with a "happy ending," also seems to have stalled the production. The composer explained that the change was of an entirely practical nature: "living people can dance, the dying can not." He changed his mind (and the ending) when someone remarked during one of the rehersals: "Strictly speaking, your music does not express any real joy at the end." Perhaps because of the difficulties with the production, the composer reused the music from the ballet in three suites, performed in 1936, 1937, and 1946 respectively.<br/><br/>Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) is considered one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. An early talent and a reputed rebel of classical music, in his creative life he composed eight ballets, seven operas, seven symphonies, nine piano sonatas and much more. In 1918, following the two Russian revolutions, Prokofiev left Russia for the United States, subsequently living in France and Germany before re-settling in the Soviet Union in 1936. Finding himself in Soviet Russia in the darkest of times, Prokofiev continued to lead a productive creative life, even as he was "encouraged" to write patriotic pieces such as his 1939 "Zdravitsa" (Cheers) to celebrate Joseph Stalin's sixtieth birthday. Prokofiev also had the misfortune of dying on the same day as the great leader, on March š, 1953, with his death going virtually unnoticed by the Soviet press and the public. For more information see Shlifstein S. and Rose Prokofieva (trans.), Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences (2000). KVK, OCLC show only two copies of this edition outside of Russia, at the Danish National Library and the Polish National Library. One of 500 copies printed.