Le Coq d'Or: conte-fable, opéra en 3 actes. Paroles russes, d'après Pouchkine, de V. Bielsky. Paroles francaises de M.D. Calvocoressi.

An attractive and scarce music score for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, The Golden Cockerel with the text in French and Russian. After Russia's defeat against Japan in 1905, Rimsky-Korsakov decided to create a satirical work which would expose the ineptitude of the disastrous Tsarist regime. He chose Pushkin's 1834 poem The Golden Cockerel as the basis for his libretto and it was ready to pass to the censor in 1907 after a year of work. It was immediately banned by the Palace, presumably due to the resemblance between the Tsar and the foolish King Dodon was too close. Rimsky-Korsakov's failing health meant that he never got to see the production of his work, dying two days before the 1909 premiere at the Solodovnikov Theatre. Bilibin designed the set for the premiere as well as the wonderful wrappers for this score.

First edition, 4to; 206pp, music score with text in French and Russian, preface by Belsky, contemporary gift inscription in Russian to the Russian title-page, stamp for the Russian Musical Publishing House on the French title-page, Art Nouveau style patterned endpapers, contemporary Russian bookseller's stamp and ink notations to lower pastedown, margins trimmed; near contemporary beige cloth, title in black to spine, original chromolithographed upper wrapper designed by Bilibin pasted to the cover, some small losses to edges, corners bumped, internally very fresh, a very good copy.