PRESERVING AN UNRECORDED CANCELLED TITLE-PAGE
[FOPPA, Giuseppe.] Francesco PANORMO, translator.
Aci e Galatea, a pastoral Opera, as represented at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket. The music entirely new, and composed here by Signor Bianchi … under the Direction of Mr. Viotti. The Translation by F. Panormo, Teacher of the Italian Language …
London: Printed by C. Clarke … 1795.
8vo, pp. [7], 4–25, 4–25 [Italian and English on facing pages], 26 [the English text below the Italian]; slightly waterstained, corners dog-eared, withal a good copy, stitched as issued in the original blue paper wrappers.
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Aci e Galatea, a pastoral Opera, as represented at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket. The music entirely new, and composed here by Signor Bianchi … under the Direction of Mr. Viotti. The Translation by F. Panormo, Teacher of the Italian Language …
First edition, very rare, of the dual-language libretto for Foppa’s Acis and Galatea (première Venice 1792) – in Italian verse and English prose. The translation was by Francesco Panormo, the eldest son of the instrument-maker Vincenzo Panormo.
Foppa was the prolific author of over one hundred libretti, and had long collaborations with Mayr, Farinelli, and Pavesi. Most of his works are comic, but this is a serious piece drawing on Greek mythology (the subject had already been dealt with in Handel’s cantata). The music, not printed here, was by Francesco Bianchi.
This copy uniquely preserves an earlier state of the title-page (printed as A1, the new title-page being a wraparound conjugate with the final leaf) which does not mention Viotti; the new title-page also expounds on Bianchi’s achievements.
ESTC records four copies only: BL, National Trust (SAL?); Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; and Rice.
