# - English musical theatre.

comprising: nine letters by Edmund Bellchambers to Elliston at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, seven of them written from Paris in May 1825 (one unnamed, but probably to Elliston), discussing Beethoven's Fidelio, which is being prepared at the Odéon, Mercadante's Les noces de Gamache, which is playing at the same theatre, stage costumes and drawings relating to the 'theatrical' coronation of Charles X in Rheims on 29 May, financial and other matters; eight other letters by Bellchambers to unnamed correspondents offering his services as an agent in Paris, and discussing various theatrical matters, including singers, Dibdin and Bochsa; and letters by other writers, including one by James Winston (concerning the employment of Miss Singleton at the Haymarket) 



...An operatic piece, founded on the wedding of Camacho in Don Quixote, is playing at the Odéon with decided success - music by Mercadante, and selected from his most popular compositions. A grand opera by Beethoven, called "Fidelio", is also preparing at the same theatre, and a music seller has announced its publication, - to subscribers 30 francs, to the public 80. - Have you Weber's "Silvana"?...Independent of the uses to which I have put the engravings, you will perceive that they afford a complete general idea of the way in which the church will be fitted up and decorated. I believe the whole is painted in imitation of white marble, veined and gilt. Plate 4 will certainly form one of the most striking coups-d'oeil ever seen in a theatre...



around 40 pages in all, plus newspaper cuttings and a Theatre Royal playbill for 13 September 1817, Paris, London, Ipswich, and elsewhere, 1811-1825, where indicated

Formerly in the Northcott collection

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An important collection of letters shedding light on the practices of English musical theatre in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, including a remarkable series of 'eyewitness' letters from Paris by Edmund Bellchambers to R.W. Elliston. See also next lot.