Wagner

[The Father of Grand Opera: Giacomo Meyerbeer.] Autograph Note in French in the third person while in London, accepting a dinner invitation from Lady Molesworth.

Author: 
Giacomo Meyerbeer [né Jakob Liebmann Beer] (1791-1864), German composer of Jewish birth, who established the ‘grand opera’ genre [Andalusia Molesworth, Lady Molesworth]
Meyerbeer
Publication details: 
15 July 1859. London.
£180.00
Meyerbeer

Meyerbeer is said to have been the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century. He encouraged and supported the young Wagner, who turned on him viciously later in life. Lady Molesworth (née Andalusia Carstairs, d.1888) had herself been a professional singer. She was the widow of Sir William Molesworth (1810-55), founder of the London Review and owner, under the editorship of John Stuart Mill, of the Westminster Review.

['M. de Wagner' [Jean-Emile de Wagner?], London Chargé d'Affaires of Kingdom of Württemberg.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Wagner'), in English, to Sir John Coxe Hippisley, announcing his transfer to Berlin, and reporting on court news of King William I

Author: 
'M. de Wagner' [Jean-Emile de Wagner?], London Chargé d'Affaires of the Kingdom of Württemberg [Wurtemberg] [Sir John Coxe Hippisley (c.1747-1825), diplomat and politician; William I (1781-1864)]
Publication details: 
Berlin; 4 September 1820.
£180.00

The letter announces the transfer to Berlin of 'Monsieur de Wagner', London Chargé d'Affaires of the the Kingdom of Württemberg, resident at 42 Alpha Place, Regent's Park. The recipient Sir John Coxe Hippisley, whom George III had described as a 'busy man' and 'grand intriguer', had retired from public life two years previously, but was clearly still involved in diplomatic affairs. 2pp, 4to. Bifolium. Forty-one lines of neatly-written text, addressed to 'Sir J C Hippisley Bart. | Lower Grosvenor Street.' On aged and worn paper, with short closed tears at edges of folds.

[ Buckingham Palace concert programme. ] Printed programme for a concert by 'Mesd[am]es Adelina Patti, Kellogg & Trebelli' and others, conducted by 'Mr. W. G. Cusins', featuring music by Liszt, Wagner and Max Bruch.

Author: 
Sir William George Cusins (1833-1893); Adelina Patti; Clara Kellogg; Zelia Trebelli-Bettini; Buckingham Palace; Ortner & Houle, 3 St James's Street, London printers
Publication details: 
'Monday Evening, 16th June, 1879.' Ortner & Houle, 3 St James's Street, London SW.
£45.00

Printed on one side of a piece of 4to paper, with thick embossed decorative border in imitation of lace. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with closed tears to frail border. Royal crest at head printed in gold and other colours and also embossed. Headed: 'BUCKINGHAM PALACE. | MONDAY EVENING, 16th. JUNE, 1879.' Fourteen pieces are listed, by Mendelssohn, Liszt, Wagner (2), Gounod (2), Bizet, Max Bruch, Rossini (2), Ambroise Thomas, Massenet, Schumann and Cimarosa. Apart from Patti, Kellogg and Trebelli, the performers are 'Herr Henschel', 'Mr. W. H.

[Sir Hubert von Herkomer, painter.] Five illustrated items designed by him for his private Wagnerian theatre: invitation to 'The Sorceress'; prospectus, libretto and invitation card for his 'Pictorial-Music-Play' 'An Idyl'; and Christmas card.

Author: 
Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914), German-born British painter admired by Van Gogh [Joseph Bennett; Edward Dalziel (1817-1905), wood engraver; Dorothy Dene (1859-1899), actress; Lululaund, Bushey]
Publication details: 
The Herkomer Theatre [on the Lululaund Estate], Bushey, Hertfordshire. 1889 and 1890. [Items printed by Novello, Ewer, and Co. of London, and R. and R. Clark of Edinburgh.]
£1,150.00

In addition to his pioneering cinematographic work, Herkomer was a theatrical innovator. As Lynda Nead points out in her 'The Haunted Gallery' (Yale, 2007), it was shortly after the opening of his art school that 'he and his students created an auditorium, modelled on Wagner's Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, for public performances of plays, written, directed and, indeed, performed by Herkomer'. See also M. A. K. Taylor, 'The New Stagecraft' (1953); J. Stokes, 'Resistible Theatres' (1972); and L. M. Edwards, 'Herkomer: A Victorian Artist' (1999). These five items all relate to the project.

Typed Letter Signed ('Hector Charlesworth') from the Canadian writer Hector Willoughby Charlesworth to the English diplomat Ernest Francis Gye, concerning Mme Albani, the latter's mother,

Author: 
Hector Charlesworth [Hector Willoughby Charlesworth] (1872-1945), Canadian writer [Dame Emma Albani (1847-1930), Canadian soprano; Ernest Frederick Gye (1879-1955), diplomat]
Publication details: 
On his Toronto letterhead; 1 June 1945.
£90.00

1 p, 4to. 20 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and creased paper. In response to a letter from Gye states that he did not hear Albani sing 'until her last two Canadian tours when she was approaching 50', when he 'thought her best in her singing of Mozart, which revealed her rare vocal finesse'. Charlesworth was told by the 'late Edwin R. Parkhurst, a Toronto music critic, 30 years my senior who had heard her frequently in his younger days in London', that 'these appearances gave no adequate idea of how glorious her voice had been in the seventies'.

Autograph Letter Signed to "William Lyster", operatic entrepreneur, introduced Wagner to Australia.

Author: 
B.L. Farjeon, novelist
Publication details: 
12 Buckingham Street, Strand, WC [London}, 28 Oct. 1880.
£56.00

One page, 8vo, grubby but text clear and complete. He introduces a colleague from his Green Room, Frederick Mervin, whom he describes as a good fellow as well as an actor and singer of ability. He hopes his correspondent will make Mervin's "trip to the Colonies pleasant to him (presumably Australia) . "I hear all the news about you from your brother Alfie when I meet him. I trust this new venture will be hugely successful." Note: Lyster opened in Melbourne with a new company but died in Nov. 1880, presumably shortly after receiving this letter.

Photograph signed,

Author: 
J. Alexander
Publication details: 
no date or place.
£35.00

Opera singer. Photograph by James Dickinson of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 5¼ inches by 3¾, of a pensive Alexander dressed in the costume of a knight, wearing a patently false beard and moustache, seated with his head resting on his right hand, and holding a harp against his left leg. Card mount stamped in silver "Jas. Dickinson, / [Crest] / The City Galleries, / Newcastle on Tyne." The reverse carries an advertisement for Dickinson ("PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST"), and is inscribed "Yours Faithfully, J.

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