Auction house Christie’s auctioned part of the manuscript score of Tchaikovsky’s opera “Mazeppa” (1883), according to a press release received by “Lentu.ru. The existence of these fragments was not known before, as they put up for sale. The auction will take place in London on June 2, lot valued at 200-300 thousand pounds sterling.
The manuscript contains the end of a love scene between Maria and Mazepa, occurring at the end of the second act, and the last part of the final third of the full orchestration. The text of the score contains a lot of corrections made by Tchaikovsky, apparently in a hurry. Also in the manuscript were the comments made by the composer during rehearsals.
Tchaikovsky carried refine the score after the premiere on Feb. 3, 1884. It started to make edits, when conductor Eduard Napravnik composer assured that the opera will be included in the permanent repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre. Changes that are reflected in the auctioned manuscripts were taken into account in setting, but never published.
Sheet, signed by Tchaikovsky, trade very rare, according to a press release. Since the beginning of the Second World War that happened only once: in 2009 the score of the opera “The Maid of Orleans” sold nearly 100,000 pounds.
Also at Christie’s auction lots on display directly associated with Vladimir Nabokov. This, in particular, the publication of the “Works” Pushkin, 1937, prepared by Modest Hoffmann and mottled litters the author of “Dara”. Also on sale collection of sketches of chess problems that Nabokov was in 1930-70’s.