[Printed handbill poem.] Part Song. | "The Torpedo and the Whale" | From Comic Opera "Olivette" | By Audran.
Author:
Edmond Audran (1840-1901), French composer of operettas [Henry Brougham Farnie (1836-1889), Scottish librettist]
Publication details:
Without date or place.
£56.00
SKU: 12301
1p., 16mo. On a piece of watermarked laid paper, 17 x 10.5 cm. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with a manuscript correction ('tracts' to 'tracks'). In three numbered stanzas, Farnie's version being in effect an entirely new poem: 'This Fish was indeed Oh! | A Woolwich Torpedo, | But Oh! But Oh! | The big whale did not know.' 'Les noces d'Olivette' was first performed in Paris in 1879; Farnie's English language adaptation starring Florence St. John was performed at the Strand Theatre in London from 1880 to 1881. This version without date or place does not correspond to any of the six versions listed on COPAC.