Le Devin du village

Large quarto of (2) ff. [title and dedication] and 95 pp., all engraved.

Period brown decorated boards, wear to corners, edges and spine. Interesting period binding, unrestored.

325 x 245 mm.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Village Soothsayer, an interlude performed at Fontainebleau before Their Majesties on October 18 and 24, 1752, and in Paris by the Royal Academy of Music on March 1^st, 1753 by J.-J. Rousseau. Price 9 th.

Paris, Mr. Leclerc, Printed by Montulay.

First edition.

The Village Soothsayer is the first work in the repertoire of the Royal Academy of Music for which both the text and music are by the same author.

King Louis XV loved the piece so much that he offered Rousseau the great honor of a lifetime pension, which the latter refused. However, the opera became one of the most popular of its time and brought Rousseau both wealth and fame. The opera was even performed at the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and it inspired the twelve-year-old Mozart to compose "Bastien und Bastienne."

The Village Soothsayer was performed at the Court and enjoyed great success, even though the author did not wish to benefit from it. It was the time of the controversy between the "king's side," who supported Rameau and French music, and the "queen's side," who supported Italian music. Rousseau took sides, with Grimm, for the Italians and published a Letter on French Music.

Composed in three weeks in the spring of 1752, The Village Soothsayer was performed successfully on October 18 and 24, 1752, at Fontainebleau, before the King and the Court, with Jélyotte (Colin), Marie Fel (Colette), and Cuvilier (the Soothsayer).

A program of festivities had been planned for the visit of Louise-Elisabeth of France, Duchess of Parma. Jean-Jacques Rousseau recounted the genesis of the work in the eighth book of his Confessions. He was then taking the waters at Passy, near the hill of Chaillot, and staying with an old Genevan friend named Mussard. After an evening spent talking about opere buffe, Rousseau could not sleep, and hastily wrote some verses and adapted them to tunes that came to him as he went. The next day, he could not help showing these tunes to his friend and his governess, Mlle Duvernois. Encouraged by their "applause," he set to work in earnest, and in six days the libretto was written and the music drafted. Once back in Paris, all that remained was to add a little recitative and filling out.

Given the failure of Les Muses galantes, which made another flop seem likely, Charles Pinot Duclos, permanent secretary of the French Academy, Rousseau’s protector and dedicatee of The Village Soothsayer, arranged for it to be performed at the Opera anonymously.

Thus it was performed by the Opera orchestra under the direction of Rebel and Francoeur, without the author's name being disclosed.

All who heard it were enchanted, so much so that the next day, in every society, it was all anyone talked about. M. de Cury, steward of the Menus Plaisirs, who had attended the rehearsal, requested the work to be performed at court. Thus Rousseau went to Fontainebleau to attend the final rehearsal.

At the first performance, before the King and Madame de Pompadour, Rousseau, in a show of defiance, appeared in his usual neglected attire: a long beard and an ill-combed wig.

From the first chords, the audience was won over, and the hearing was barely disturbed by the whispering of women…as beautiful as angels, whispering to each other: This is charming, this is delightful, there is not a single note here that doesn’t speak to the heart…

Rare and interesting copy preserved as issued, with full margins, untrimmed, in its original publisher’s boards.