Die Drei Pintos. Komische Oper in drei Aufzügen. Unter Zugrundelegung des gleichnamigen Textbuches v. Th. Hell, der hinterlassenen Entwürfe und ausgewählter Manuscripte des Componisten ausgeführt: der dramatische Theil von C. von Weber, der musikalische von G. Mahler. Klavier-Auszug m. Text. 4to. 223 pp. [PN] 2951. Bound in gray marbled boards with red cloth spine. Boards chipped at edges and corners, partial losses and breaks to spine, small tear to upper left of title, lightly toned, but a clean and quite fine copy internally. The copy of German opera composer and conductor, Manfred Gurlitt, and with his ownership signature dated "Bremen, Dez. 1919" to the head of the title. A rare first edition of the piano reduction, with interesting provenance. 

This composition was begun by Weber in 1820, the last revisions are dated September 27, 1824. The work remained unfinished and was therefore not published during Weber's lifetime. It was only in 1888 - around 50 years after Weber's death - that the work received attention again. The young Gustav Mahler had received the sketches from Weber's grandson and began to complete the work using motifs and themes from other Weber works.  The publication includes the cast list for the first performance on January 20, 1888 in Leipzig under Gustav Mahler (including Therese Rothauser as Inez).

Manfred Gurlitt  studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck and conducting with Karl Muck, acting as his musical assistant at Bayreuth. In 1914 he was given the post of first conductor at the Bremen Stadttheater, a position he held until he became general music director there in 1924. In 1920 he founded a Society for New Music in Bremen to encourage avant-garde and rarely heard pre-classical works, also there conducted his own first opera Die Heilige, in 1920.  In 1940, he became Musical Director of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and though Gurlitt's attitude to the Nazi regime remained equivocal, he spent most of his career in Japan.