DALI, SALVADOR.
Autograph Manuscript Signed (“Salvador Dali”), in French, 2 pp, folio, Monte Carlo, April 20, 1938, being the title page and abstract for Dali’s ballet, “Tristan Fou,” leaves toned and lightly soled, ink stain at lower right corner of each leaf, housed in mylar sleeves, matted together and framed to 21 ½ by 28 ½ inches.
In 1938 Dali composed “Tristan Fou / Espectacle paranoiaque” a reinterpretation of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde. Based upon the mediaeval myth of the death of Tristan and Isolde, the ballet, according to this manuscript, featured music by R. Wagner and “Federic Nietche,” choreography by Leonide Massime, costumes by Elsa Schiaparelli, and scenery by Dali inspired by paintings of Jean-Francois Millet. Dali closes this manuscript thus: “Tristan Fou c’est le mythe heroique et total qui se pose chaque fois qu’un homme et une femme dressent l’un face l’autre le tumulte orageux et visceral de toute la confuse obscurite vegetale et marecageuse, de leur biologie frenetique. La premiere partie du spectacle n’a aucun rapport avec Wagner il sont uniquement a situer le developmement argumental [sic]. La segonde partie au contraire n’est que l’exaltation du ‘sublime Wagnerien’.”
See illustration.
