Messaline - Exemplaire de Claude Terrasse

First edition, one of the press copies.
Half brown shagreen binding, smooth spine with gilt floral panels, gilt initials C.T. at foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, covers preserved, gilt edges, one upper corner slightly rubbed, binding dating from some years later.
Inscribed by Charles Terrasse (son of Claude) in ink at the head of a flyleaf.

Discreet restorations to the joints.
Precious presentation copy signed and inscribed by Alfred Jarry: "A Claude Terrasse son admirateur et son ami. Alf. Jarry" [his admirer and friend]

 

Claude Terrasse, the “Berlioz of French operetta,” contributed to the success of many of Jarry’s masterpieces and composed music for Ubu roi at its premiere at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre. In 1898, Jarry organized the brilliant revival of Ubu Roi in Terrasse’s own apartment, where he founded with him and Franc-Nohain the Théâtre des Pantins. Ubu roi was performed there from 20 to 31 January 1898, with puppets created by Terrasse’s brother-in-law, the painter Pierre Bonnard. Terrasse played the piano for this theatrical experiment.

With Messaline, ““August's harlot, the flesh of the divine emperors” (p. 77), Jarry returned to the ancient literary references he had numerously used in Ubu. After drawing inspiration from Sophocles and his Oedipus Rex, he now turned to the famous satires of Juvenal: “instead of stigmatizing the empress’s lasciviousness as did the Latin satirist, Messalina in her escapades is presented as a being in search of the absolute, who, as Lupa, rediscovers the very origins of Rome and a form of sacrality” (Rémy Poignault). That same year, Terrasse created at the Bouffes Parisiens a highly successful antiquity-themed parody, Les Travaux d’Hercule.

At Terrasse’s request, Jarry also embarked on the ambitious project of adapting another classic with considerable burlesque potential, and worked for more than a decade on the libretto for Pantagruel, an opéra-bouffe set to music by his friend. The composer even invited Jarry to his country house to encourage him to complete his decidedly gargantuan manuscript. Jarry died before adding the finishing touches - Terrasse finished himself the creation of Jarry's final “féerie mirlitonesque”.