1st Edition 1922. Signed by the cast including Margaret Chatwin, W Johnstone Douglas, Albert Thompson, William Heseltine, Herbert Simmonds, Leighton Lucas, B Bradley Williams, Dame Gwen Lucy Ffrangcon-Davies and two others. The Immortal Hour is an opera by English composer Rutland Boughton. Boughton adapted his own libretto from the play of the same name by Fiona MacLeod, a pseudonym of writer William Sharp. The Immortal Hour is a fairy tale or fairy opera, with a mood and theme similar to Dvořák's Rusalka and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Magic and nature spirits play important roles in the storyline. The fairy people are not mischievous, childlike sprites, but are proud and powerful: immortal demigods who are feared by mortals and who can (and do) interfere with the lives of men and women. Alternatively, the progression of Etain into the mortal realm and her pursuit and redemption by Midir have similarities with the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. In this work, Boughton combined Wagnerian approaches to musical themes and symbolism with a folk-like modal approach to the music itself, reflective of the Celtic origins of the tale, which is based on the Irish story Tochmarc Étaíne. The softcover book is good+ and bright. Covers lightly marked, fine edge creasing and age toned. Contents good.