Tancred. Heroische Oper in zwey Aufzügen. Nach dem Italienischen von Christian Grünbaum, Sanger und Schauspieler des k. Ständ. Theaters in Prag. Mit Musik von Joachim Rossini. Für das k.k. Hof=Opern=Theater

Wien: J.B. Wallishauffer, 1818. Octavo. Original publisher's dark ivory wrappers with title within decorative border to upper and imprint within decorative border to lower. 1f. (recto title, verso cast list), 44 pp. + 2ff. (publisher's advertisements).

Wrappers worn and soiled; edges frayed and with several small tears; manuscript notation ("U.F. 144") and small manuscript label ("N. 6928") to upper margin of upper; edges slightly soiled. Minor internal wear and browning; several leaves creased at outer margin. Tancredi, a "melodramma eroico" in two acts to a libretto by Gaetano Rossi after Voltaire's Tancrède, was first performed in Venice at La Fenice on 6 February 1813. It is regarded as Rossini's first international success and was the first of the composer's operas to be translated into other languages. It was first performed in Vienna on 17 December 1816 in Italian and on 12 March 1818 in German, the performance for which the present libretto was presumably published. Loewenberg col. 630.

"Tancredi marks Rossini's coming of age as a composer of opera seria. Static forms and limited harmonic horizons are given a new dynamism and reach as Rossini successfully redeploys structural innovations derived from his early one-act operas. It is also one of his most purely lyrical works, a primary example of what Stendhal calls his 'candeur virginale'. The critic and poet Giuseppe Carpani wrote of the opera: 'It is cantilena and always cantilena: beautiful cantilena, new cantilena, magic cantilena, rare cantilena'." Richard Osborne in Grove Music Online

It was Rossini's first international success, and went on to performances in Munich in August of 1816 (in Italian) and 1821 (in German). Loewenberg col. 630.