Unsigned Opera Programs & Posters

First performance in Argentina of this opera, just 7 months after the world premiere at the Met Opera in December 1910!. Tita Ruffo performs as Jack Rance - Pages are lose (no clip holding them together)

Large poster announcement for the world premiere of this opera by Italian composer, musicologist and teacher Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973), who created 19 operas, 11 symphonies, and many vocal, chamber and symphonic works. World premiere performance on Sept 4th, 1966 in La Biennale di Venezia, Venice. Poster is 39.25 x 13.75 inches, has folds, otherwise in very good condition. ALSO INCLUDED is a full program for La Biennale (an international festival for contemporary music).

Original vintage poster from 1885, designed by Paul Maurou (1848-1931), size is 22 x 30 inches (56 x 76.2 cm), imp. Lemercier & Cie., Paris. Sepia-tones image advertising one of the many performances of this comic opera based on Alexandre Dumas´ classic The Three Musketeers. This was a particularly successful version of this opera. In very good condition, minor tears and stains, primarily at edges.

Program of Zopott Festival, July and August 1932. Performance of Lohengrin. With Karl Elmendorff conducting. With Ludwig Hofmann, Fritz Wolff, Gotthelf Pistor, Lotte Lehmann, Herbert Janssen. Rare. Zopott Festival was next to Bayreuth the most important Wagner Festival in the first half of the 20th century, attracting the most important Wagner singers of that era.   Size is 5.5 x 8.75 inches, 32 pages with covers, in excellent condition

Full 4-page program for a performance of La Gioconda at Teatro Politeama, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1895, with famous tenor Fernando de Lucia as Enzo, soprano Elisa Petri performs in the title role. Size is 7 x 11.75 inches, in excellent condition.

Program for a performance of this opera at Teatro Colon, Argentina, with star soprano Victoria de los Angeles in the title role, full program, Ettore Panizza conducts

Clip cut from a Met Opera program, 1909, for a special Gala performance of opera fragments including Pagliacci, The Bartered Bride (Act one), Aida (Act 2, scene 2) and Manon (Act 3, scene 2), each conducted by a famous conductor, including Gustav Mahler for The Bartered Bride and Arturo Toscanini for Aida!. An extremely rare program clip from a night with 2 legendary conductors, who did not get along with each other, and probably never again performed together with the same orchestra in the same night.  This is just a clip and not a full program, size is 3.1 x 11 inches, in very good condition.

Star Spanish soprano/mezzo-soprano (1808-1836), considered one of the greatest singers of the 19th century. Rare playbill announcement for a performance of Fidelio at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London, June 29th, 1835, with Malibran in the title role, this was just the 6th time this opera was performed in England. Size is 7.75 x 13.4 inches, in excellent condition.

Program from Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a performance in 1915 of Manon and Pagliacci (first act), with Enrico Caruso as Des Grieux and Genevieve Vix in the title role!. Also in the cast is Mario Sammarco. 5.25 x 9.75 inches, complete with all pages and covers, covers are loose, minor binding damage, otherwise excellent.

Program from Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a performance in 1915 of Manon Lescaut, with Enrico Caruso as Des Grieux and Gilda dalla Rizza in the title role!. Also in the cast is Mario Sammarco. 5.25 x 9.75 inches, complete with all pages and covers, covers are loose, minor binding damage, otherwise excellent.

Program for a performance on May 25th, 1922 (Argentina´s holiday celebrating the 112th anniversary of the May Revolution to gain independence from Spain). Pietro Mascagni conducts the orchestra at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the first part of this gala concert, with very famous soloists, including Gabriela Besanzoni, Miguel Fleta, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and Elvira de Hidalgo.  Full program with all pages and covers, 7.4 x 7.4 inches, in very good condition. 

Group of 7 programs for recitals at Carnegie Hall by famous Austro-Hungarian (now Romanian) mezzo-soprano Margarete Matzenauer (1881-1963). Each one is complete, sized 6 x 9 inches, in excellent condition.

Full program for the last night at the old Metropolitan Opera house in New York, the building was used from 1883 through 1966 and for this farewell performance on April 16th, 1966, there was a special gala show with many famous singers. Program with many articles about the Metropolitan Opera history and the old building, 8 x 11 inches, with all 96 pages and covers.

Luxury program/book with many photographs detailing the Met history, star singers and their 17-day tour in Japan, 1975. Mostly in Japanese language, fron cover with part of the famous "Triumph of Music" mural by Marc Chagall, 132 pages plus a number of advertisement pages at the end. Size is 8.25 x 10.5 inches, in very good condition.

Full program for a performance of this opera by Umberto Giordano, August 7th, 1919, with star soprano Claudia Muzio in the title role. This was the first performance in Argentina and in South America of this opera, Tulio Serafin conducted. Size is 7 x 10.5 inches, loose covers, otherwise in good condition.

Large 1-page program from the Hofburgtheater, Vienna, 1878, performance of Otello, opera by Rossini, with the star soprano Christine Nilsson as Desdemona. Program also includes the first performance of Andreas Paumkircher, a tragedy in five acts by Wilhelm von Wartenegg (1839-1914). Size is 14.5 x 9.25 inches, in excellent condition

Large lot of opera program clips, mounted on pages of an album, from opera houses mostly from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, but some in Europe, period 1882 through 1927. Included are some of the very first performances at the Metropolitan opera! (the company had its first performance ever in October 1883). A total of over 140+ pages separated from an album (not bound), mostly from opera performances, a few from theater plays and concerts. Each page is 10.5 x 17.5 inches, containing several clips per page, all collected by one same person over a period of 45+ years. Many famous singers and conductors!. Sold as a lot only, not sold individually. In overall good condition, see scans of the complete collection.

Group of 15 program-playbills for performances in various theaters in Vienna, between 1916 and 1925 (with 2 exceptions, one 1874 and one 1931 playbill), seven are in 7.75 x 9.75-inch format, the rest in larger size (approx. 8.75 x 11.5 inches), all in very good condition. See scans - not sold individually.

Cast page from Orfeo ed Euridice program conducted by Robert Heger with Margarete Klose and Maria Cebotari in the cast during the Festival of the Staatsoper of Berlin in Rome 4-9 March 1941. Only middle pages with cast from program.

Full program for a performance of Otello in London, 1939, with Vittorio Gui conducting, cast includes Lauritz Melchior in the title role, Mario Basiola, Maria Caniglia. Full program, 7.25 x 9.5 inches. Opera director Thomas Beecham is featured on the first page.

Program from Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a performance in 1915 of Pagliacci with Enrico Caruso as Canio and Mario Sammarco as Tonio. Also in that night, Cavalleria Rusticana was performed, with Rosa Raisa as Santuzza. Size is 5.25 x 9.75 inches, complete with all pages and covers, covers are loose, minor binding damage, otherwise excellent.

Program from Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a performance of Leoncavallo´s opera "Pagliacci" on August 5th, 1917. Caruso performed in the role of Canio, his signature role. This was the last performance he made of Pagliacci in Argentina. Caruso performed in Argentina in the late 1890s, when he was very young and before his great debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1903. He became there a superstar performing many different roles, being Canio in Pagliacci the most famous. He went back to Argentina to perform at Teatro Colon during seasons 1915 and 1917, and unfortunately he never had the chance to return again after 1917. Caruso performed Pagliacci 5 times during the Teatro Colon 1915 season, and only 4 times during the 1917 season, making a total of only 9 performances of Pagliacci at Teatro Colon. These programs are quite a rarity (this is actually the only Teatro Colon / Pagliacci with Caruso program we´ve seen in years). Program is complete, with all pages and covers, and in excellent condition. Program is large format: 6 x 11 inches, in very good quality paper.

Parsifal - Munich, Prinzregententheater, June 20th, 1910 Königliches Hoforchester Munich Conductor: Felix Mottl Parsifal: Heinrich Knote Amfortas: Fritz Feinhals Gurnemanz / Titurel: Paul Bender Stimme aus der Höhe: Margarete Preuse-Matzenauer. Program 24,5 x 19 cm. 6 pages + Playbill 31,5 x 18,5 cm. The Playbill is glued to the back of the program. See scans.

Program of Parsifal at Zopott Festival, 26nd July- 5th August 1931. With Max von Schilling conducting. With Friedrich Plaschke, Otto Helgers, Herbert Janssen, Arnold Greve, Hermann Marowski, Fritz Soot, Göta Ljungberg, Eugenie Burkhardt. Rare. Zopott Festival was next to Bayreuth the most important Wagner Festival in the first half of the 20th century, attracting the most important Wagner singers of that era. Size is 5.5 x 8.75 inches, complete with all pages and covers, in excellent condition