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John Secrist Jr. papers, 1919-1973
5.75 linear feet (18 boxes). -- Recorded Sound Research Center, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Papers, including discographic and photographic materials, included in the John Secrist Jr. Collection of nearly 1,700 operatic sound recordings.
Geraldine Farrar papers, 1895-1960s
approximately 25,000 items. 67 boxes. 5 mapcase folders. 28.5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Geraldine Farrar was an American opera singer and film actress. The collection consists of Farrar's personal papers relating to her life and career, including correspondence, scrapbooks and clippings, photographs and music materials containing sketches, autograph manuscripts, and printed music composed or edited by Farrar. In addition, the collection contains biographical materials, Farrar's writings, contracts, radio scripts, concert programs, awards, and other miscellaneous items.
Program notes from the Voice of America Music Library Collection, 1946-1988
23 linear feet (55 boxes, approximately 19,250 items). -- Recorded Sound Research Center, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
United States international broadcaster bureau founded in 1942. Programs and program notes make up the largest portion of the collection, along with press releases, promotional materials, audition notes, and scripts to document the programming of the VOA.
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Serge Lifar collection on Serge Diaghilev, 1750-1950
around 1,350 items. 81 boxes. 91 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
This collection is comprised in large part of printed music, widely representing 18th century Italian and 19th century Russian operatic music. Includes rare pre-revolutionary editions of Russian folk songs, annotated performance scores of Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gounod, Cimarosa. Non-musical materials include three letters from S. Prokofiev to S. Diaghilev, rare edition of books on music, literature and theater, libretti and synopses, souvenir books and programs and photographs. Several of the programs and photographs show Léon Bakst's set and costume designs. Non-musical materials also include Diaghilev’s personal notebook, containing entries in French, Russian, and English made in 1926-1929.
Belle Brown collection, 1865-1912
180 items. 3 containers. 1.75 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Belle Brown was an American soprano who had a brief operatic career abroad around the turn of the twentieth century. Although little biographical information exists about her, the contents of this collection document her relationships with prominent and respected European performers of the day. She studied with many celebrated performers and pedagogues, including Désirée Artôt, Pauline Lucca, and Jean and Edouard de Reszke. The collection contains correspondence with performers and pedagogues; photographs and prints of composers, performers, musicians, and other influential figures in European musical society around the turn of the century; and miscellaneous clippings and ephemeral materials.
National Negro Opera Company collection, 1879-1997
11,250 items. 68 containers. 39 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
The National Negro Opera Company, the first African-American opera company in the United States, was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1941, by Mary Cardwell Dawson. The collection contains materials and records related to the company and to Dawson. It includes correspondence, administrative and financial records, photographs, programs, promotional and publicity materials, scrapbooks, clippings, address books, notebooks, music, and books. In addition, the collection contains materials related to opera singer La Julia Rhea, who performed with the company, and Walter M. Dawson, Mary Cardwell Dawson's husband, who worked for the company.
Harold Prince papers, 1935-2017
2,000 items. 24 containers. 10.5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Harold Prince was a theater producer and director. The papers chiefly consist of personal correspondence and Prince’s annotated copies of the scripts for the shows he directed.
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Houston L. Maples family collection on Russian theatre, opera, and ballet, 1940-2004
approximately 180 items. 4 containers. 2 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Houston L. Maples was a United States naval attaché to Moscow. His son, Houston Maples Jr., worked in the State Department's Moscow Office of Information and Culture. The collection includes photographs, programs, and writings pertaining to dance and opera, particularly in the immediate post-World War II period in the Soviet Union. The Bolshoi Theatre and Kirov Ballet (now known as Mariinsky Ballet) are well-represented.
Paul F. Stiga collection of stage and costume design, 1821-2017
approximately 4,000 items. 236 boxes. 134.5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
Paul Freeman Stiga (1936-2019) was a collector of set and costume designs created for stage productions, television, and film. The Paul F. Stiga Collection of Stage and Costume Design consists of approximately 2,600 design renderings that date between 1821 and 2017 and document more than 1,300 ballets, motion pictures, plays, operas, operettas, revues, and television shows. These renderings encompass the work of more than 900 designers, including Georg II, Duke of Sachsen-Meiningen, Robert Edmond Jones, Jo Mielziner, Léon Bakst, Walter Plunkett, Irene Sharaff, and Edith Head. Stiga maintained informational files on numerous designers that include biographical materials, clippings, and exhibition catalogs. The collection also contains 85 caricatures by Sam Norkin and approximately 50 prints and posters.
Correspondence of Elizabeth Mitchell Stephenson Fite and the American National Opera Company, 1864-1951
approximately 125 items. 1 container. .5 linear feet. -- Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Summary:
This collection documents the efforts of Elizabeth Mitchell Stephenson Fite to establish the American National Opera Company, a performing organization that endeavored to present operas in English, but did not realize that vision." Reflected in the materials is the involvement or opinions of noteworthy musicians such as George Whitfield Chadwick, Reginald De Koven, Arthur Foote, Victor Herbert, and others. It also contains correspondence addressed to other individuals, possibly related to Fite’s work at The Circle and Success magazine, published in New York in the first decade of the twentieth century. Also included is correspondence and documents believed to be related to Fite’s family members as well as a small number of photographs, clippings, and autographs.