From Ganges' Beauteous Strands comes from the incidental music Crusell wrote for an extravaganza called The Little Bondswoman which is based on the Ali Baba story from Guilbert de Pixercourt's A Thousand and One Nights. The scene set for the aria is the brilliantly lit hall of a Baghdad caravanserai. Zetulbe, slave to Ali Baba, sings to entertain the company. She is dressed as an Indian dancing girl, hence a reference in her song to the Shastas, a nomadic Indian tribe. Crusell began the composition of the music in 1820. The extravaganza was given its first performance by the court opera in Stockholm on 18th February 1824 with Crusell himself playing the obbligato part. The aria is scored for an orchestra of flute, oboe, clarinet in A (or 2nd oboe), made available by kind permission of Mr Bo Lundgren, Chief Librarian of the Royal Musical Academy in Stockholm, whose manuscript score has been the source for this edition. - Pamela Weston, 1980.
- ISMN: 9790570401956 (M570401956)