CILEA FRANCESCO: (1866-1950) Italian Composer. Best known for his operas Adriana Lecouvreur (1902) and L´Arlesiana ...

CILEA FRANCESCO: (1866-1950) Italian Composer. Best known for his operas Adriana Lecouvreur (1902) and L´Arlesiana (1897) with his celebrated aria `E la Solita Storia del Pastore´ also known as Lamento di Federico. A good A.M.Q.S., `F. Cilea´, with a three lines inscription, to an 8.5 x 10.5 (21,5 x 27 cm) page removed from an autograph album, in Italian. Cilea states `Alla gentilissima Signora Marina Chaliapin, che al celebre nome paterno aggiunge le sue doti personali di grazia, di bellezza, d´intelligenza.´ (''To the very kind Madam Marina Chaliapin, who adds her personal gifts of grace, beauty and intelligence to the famous paternal name.''). Cilea has also carefully penned beneath a two bars of music which he identifies and entitles `Dall´''Arlesiana''´(`From the ''Arlesiana''´), adding the musical tempo `Lento´. Dated in Cilea´s hand at the conclusion, `Varazze (Genova) 1st of August 1937. XVth´. The written and signed page has been neatly affixed in an attractive way to the autograph album page. Bearing to the verso an autograph with inscription by Carmine Gallone (1885-1973) Italian film Director. A controversial screenwriter for his pro-Fascist propaganda. Signed in Venice, august 1937. Small overall minor age toning to edges. About VG Provenance: The present page originates from the personal autograph album of Marina Chaliapin (1912-2009), the daughter of Russian opera singer Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938), widely regarded as one of the finest bass singers of the 20th century, and his mistress Marina Petsold (1882-1964) who became the singer's second wife in 1927. Chaliapin's daughter was married to Luigi Freddi (1895-1977) the Italian journalist and politician who edited the journal Il Popolo d'Italia and who was also hugely influential in Italian political cinema in the second half of the 1930s and beginning of the 1940s