Miss Levi Miss Rachel & Miss Moses.

£200 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

A controversial song from the comic opera Family Quarrels, with libretto by the playwright Thomas Dibdin (1771-1841), and score by the actor and composer William Reeve (1757-1815). Miss Levi, Miss Rachel Miss Moses proved unpopular with Jewish members of the audience when performed at Covent Garden Theatre in December 1802, who were offended by the signer John Fawcett's disguise as 'Aaron the Jew', and the song's musical similarity to the synagogue prayer, the Kaddish (Wagner, p.86). Dibdin defended what he considered a 'harmless joke' in a chapter of his autobiography entitled 'And the Twelve Tribes Waxed Wroth'. Sheet music; folio (34 x 24.5 cm); engraved title, imprint over earlier text reading 'London printed sold at No.28 Haymarket'; disbound; 73-77, [1] pp. Richard Wagner, (Jewry in Music); Sheila A. Spector (ed.), Romanticism/Judaica: A Convergence of Cultures.

• Binding: Hardcover

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