Heading: (San Francisco, Bohemian Club - 1925 ‘Chinese’-French opera)
Author: Templeton Crocker (book) and Joseph Redding (music)
Title: Fay-Yen-Fah, Opera in Three Acts
Place Published: Paris
Publisher:
Date Published: 1925
Description:

[Complete musical score] First and only edition. Preface and lyrics in English and French. Original wrappers. 8 x 11.5", 302pp.; and program for the first American performance by San Francisco Opera Co., Columbia Theatre, San Francisco, January 23, 1926. Original pictorial wrappers with front cover Chinese motif. 7 x 10", 12pp. Rare memorabilia of Bohemian Club dramatic and San Francisco musical significance.

The opera was a spin-off from a 1917 Bohemian Grove play by Crocker, scion of the banking clan, and "polymath" San Francisco lawyer Redding, who was not only a world-class chess master, but a California "Fish Commissioner" who brought eastern lobster to the waters of San Francisco Bay. Their choice of a Chinese theme, a fantasy set in a "remote part of legendary China", according to praise in the program by Steinway Pianos, "fascinated" the local Chinatown community - despite the fact that none of the singers were Asian. Remarkably, the opera premiered in Europe - the first American opera produced in France - originally staged (to a "magnificent reception") at the Opera House in Monte Carlo in 1925. The San Francisco performance the following year was the first in America.

For his musical achievement, Redding was awarded the ribbon of the French Legion of Honor, though he is remembered by history as the Bohemian Club luminary who invented its occult "Cremation of Care" annual ceremony, in which he himself first appeared as the "Druid high priest".

Some edge wear, otherwise very good.