Alfred Piccaver’s copy of The Vocal Score of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida

Piccaver’s beautiful etched bookplate designed by Berta Bindtner, dated 1919, to the front pastedown, depicting a grand theatre interior.

Annotated by Piccaver throughout with red crayon lines and verbal and musical notations in pencil. A very good copy, the binding secure with some minor scattered splash marks and a touch of wear to the corners and spine ends. The contents with typical signs of a working text – tape repairs to pp.187-88, a little crumpling to the final text page, and the odd mark and minor tear here and there – are otherwise in good order.

A musical score for Verdi’s opera Aida, first performed in December 1871, owned and annotated by the British-American operatic tenor Alfred Piccaver (1884-1958). After studying in New York and Prague, Piccaver was taken on as a permanent member of the Vienna State Opera in 1912, where he met with great acclaim. Performing in operas by Flotow, Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Puccini and Gounod, amongst others, he became a beloved mainstay of the Viennese operatic scene, remaining in the city for most of his life.