Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)
Autograph manuscript signed ('A. Honegger'), the 'Final' of Act I of his operetta Les aventures du roi Pausole, 1930
Presentation score of the Act I finale of Honegger's hit operetta.

Title and 7½ pages, 349 x 270mm, for voice and piano reduction on 22-stave paper, the Stichvorlage, inscribed on title 'Gardez ce petit morceau en souvenir de mon début aux Bouffes / votre / A. Honegger', a few pencil emendations and annotations, rehearsal numberings in red pencil, printer's markings in blue pencil; autograph letter signed to [Albert Willemetz], n.d. [December 1930], tipped in between pages 1 and 2. In modern purple wrappers, facsimile title label.

Provenance:
(1) Albert Willemetz (1887-1964).

(2) Stargardt, Berlin, 24/25 March 2015, lot 493.

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 5546.

The finale of Act I sees the decadent king Pausole decide on the advice of his page, Giglio, and his Grand Eunuch, Taxis, to set off in pursuit of his daughter, Aline, who has eloped with a boy dancer, not realising that he is in fact a girl, Mirabelle.

By nationality Swiss, Honegger spent almost his entire life living and working in Paris, where from the early 1920s he was classed as a member of 'Les Six', alongside Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. Albert Willemetz, the recipient of the manuscript, was the librettist of the work and secretary of the théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens where it was first performed on 12 December 1930, to great success, running for more than 500 nights. Honegger's letter to Willemetz acknowledges his pleasure in their collaboration: 'Je voudrais [...] vous dire encore combien je vous suis reconnaissant d’avoir été pour moi un si charmant collaborateur et surtout de m’avoir fait confiance pour cette œuvre à laquelle je savais que vous teniez beaucoup’.