SAINT-SAËNS (Camille). LASSUS ( Lucien Augé de). L'ancêtre, - Lot 273

SAINT-SAËNS (Camille). LASSUS ( Lucien Augé de). L'ancêtre, lyric drama in three acts. Score for voice and piano reduced by the author. Copy enriched with handwritten musical fragments and an autograph letter signed by Camille Saint-Saëns. Paris, Durand, no date (circa 1906). Volume in-4 ( 31.5 x 240 mm), half-basin, cold-stamped green percaline boards, initials A.T. in the center of the first board, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and titling in gilt letters. 221 pages. Leather faded, rubbed, head cap frayed. First edition. Enriched with a signed autograph letter from the composer to the dreyfusard writer and bibliophile Eugène Descaves (1861-1954). In addition, a handwritten page and 3 pages of handwritten musical fragments with lyrics bearing annotations, corrections and erasures are bound in at the beginning. Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. His most famous works include Introduction et Rondo capriccioso (1863), the opera Samson et Dalila (1877), Le Carnaval des animaux (1887) and others. His teaching position at the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris played a key role in the development of French music: among his pupils was Gabriel Fauré, whose pupil Maurice Ravel was himself. Both revered Saint-Saëns as a genius, whose influence on their own music was profound. Provenance: Unidentified etched bookplate.