The Beggar's Opera [SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR]
Paris: The Limited Editions Club, 1937. Lydis, Mariette. Limited edition. Hardcover. 1/1500. Folio. 121, [5]pp. Uncut. Original blue cloth with spine and covers stamped and lettered in gilt, covers blind stamped. Top edge gilt. Limitation page numbered and signed by Mariette Lydis. The "Beggar's Opera" is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today. Ballad operas were satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative. The lyrics of the airs in the piece are set to popular broadsheet ballads, opera arias, church hymns and folk tunes of the time. This exquisite limited edition is lavishly illustrated with 15 stunning lithographs by Mariette Lydis. Spine slightly age-toned. Binding and interior in overall very good condition. vg. Item #13202
Price: $75.00