Les Facheux. Georges Braque Jean Cocteau Louis Laloy Georges Auric Theatre Serge De Diaghilew [Ballets Russes]. Auric, Georges Et Al. Art & Photographs,New Arrivals

2 volumes. Quarto. Original publisher's heavy ivory wrappers with illustration in color by Braque to uppers. In publisher's slipcase with dark ivory title label printed in dark brown to upper. Vol. I: 1f. (recto half-title, verso blank),1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto "Jean Cocteau," verso blank), 3ff. text, 1f. portrait of Cocteau, 1f. (recto "Louis Laloy," verso blank), 7ff. text, 1f. (recto facsimile of music by Auric, verso blank), 1f. (recto "Georges Braque," verso blank), + 23 hand-colored set and costume designs, + [iv] (text including colophon), 1f (blank) The hand-colored designs by Braque: La Naïde; Esquisse du décor; Décor (manquette); Éraste; La Montagne; Lysandre; Orphise; L'Élegante; Joueuse de volant; Joueuse de volant (dos); Première bavarde; Deuxième bavarde; Deuxième bavarde (dos); Joueur de boules; Joueur de cartes; Le Tuteur; Premier valet; Deuxième valet; Policier; Premier masque; Premier masque (dos); Deuxième masque; and Deuxième masque (dos). Vol. II: 1f. (recto half-title, verso blank), 1f. (recto blank, verso reproduction of photograph of Braque by Man Ray), 1f. (recto title "Réalisation Scénique," verso blank), 1f. (contents), 1f. (recto "Argument," verso blank), 1f. (recto part title, verso blank), + 22 full-page photographic illustrations of dancers L. Krassovska; Nicolas Zverew; Antoine Wilzak; La Nijinska (2); Lubov Tchernicheva (3); Antoine Doline; N. Devalois (2); Ludmila Cholar, L. Choliar et A. Wilzak; Alice Nikitin; L. Chollar, A. Nikitina and A. Wilzak; Thadée Slavinsky (2); Th. Slavinsky, E. Lapitsky et C. Tcherkas; Léon Woizikovsky; J. Jazvinsky et M. Pavlow; M. Federow; and S. Lifar in role portraits. All plates with tissue guards. With an autograph inscription in black ink from Boris Kochno (1904-1990) dated June 1934 to George [Hoyningen-] Huene to upper glassine cover of Vol. I and with a subsequent presentation inscription dated Los Angeles June 1954 in blue ink from Hoyningen-Huene to Oreste Pucciani to half title in Vol. I; Hoyningen-Huene's bookplate below inscription. With printed note to final leaf of Vol. I: "Publié sous la direction de M. Boris Kochno." Wrappers slightly worn and soiled; slipcase worn and taped at edges. Minor internal wear; a few signatures split or partially split; some tissue guards worn, creased, and foxed; several plates with minor marginal staining. First Edition. Limited to 500 copies, this no. 347 of only 385 copies on Vélin d'Arches, with limitation statements at conclusion of each volume. Magriel p. 187. Niles & Leslie I, p. 75. Derra de Moroda 1503. Les Facheux, a ballet in one act with music by Georges Auric; choreography by Bronislava Nijinska; scenario by Boris Kochno after Moliere's comedy-ballet; and curtain, scenery and costumes by Georges Braque, was first performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo on 19 January 1924 with principal dancers Lubov Tchernicheva, Anatole Vilzak, and Anton Dolin. "By the time [Auric] found himself a member of Les Six [Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc, and Tailleferre], the style of his music - brilliant and often acidly aggressive - had become well established, and works such as the Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau (1919) or the foxtrot Adieu, New York! (1919) show how he can be considered, along with Poulenc, the group's most typical representative. On hearing his 1921 incidental music for Molière's comédie-ballet Les fâcheux, Diaghilev asked him to transform it into a ballet. First performed in Monte Carlo . it shows a facility for mood creation and a virtuosity in the manipulation of highly varied material that presages his film music. Other successful ballets followed: Les matelots (1924) and La pastorale (1925) for Diaghilev, Les enchantements de la fée d'Alcine (1928) for Ida Rubinstein ." Jeremy Drake in Grove Music Online. Kochno "was a Russian-born writer and ballet librettist who collaborated with ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev during the last years of t