4 volumes, small folio (400 x 265).  675pp. engraved score. (Mostly marginal repairs to a few leaves, a few leaves with repairs crossing printed staves and score, a few leaves with some soiling.) Portions of original front wrappers laid onto modern half navy morocco gilt; quarter morocco folding cases.  Provenance: red and blue pencil and graphite performance annotations throughout. 

FIRST EDITION OF THE FULL ORCHESTRAL SCORE. Il Trovatore, first performed in 1853, has remained one of Verdi's most popular operas.  Verdi and his librettist, Cammarano, originally intended to attempt a setting of Shakespeare's King Lear as a follow-up to Rigoletto, but never completed the work.  Verdi suggested Cammarano look at Spanish playwright García Guttiérrez's El trovador, which he considered to be "'very beautiful, imaginative and full of strong situations.' The composer bullied the writer into adapting the play into something that would give him the maximum of creative leeway: 'the more he provides me with the originality and freedom of form the better I shall be able to do.' the end product...is packed with crowd-pleasing solo turns, bit chrouses, thrilling climaxes and complex ensemble finales" (Boyden 225-6). Fuld 102-3, 673; Hopkinson 54C.