Research Catalog

Title

[The Royal Italian Opera before & behind the curtain. Selections] [graphic] / Th. Guerin.

Author

Guerin, Théodore.

Publication

[London? : E. Gambart?, 1853?]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

4 prints : lithograph, hand-colored; 20 x 28 cm. or smaller, on mount 25 x 33 cm. or smaller.

Summary

Depictions of a nineteenth-century ballet troupe's activities, onstage and off. Only one of the prints in this selection, no. 4, The subscriber's privilege, hints at a satirical intent: a man in evening dress is lowered (or raised) through a trapdoor, surrounded by costumed male and female dancers.

Alternative Title

Royal Italian Opera before and behind the curtain. Selections

Subject

• Royal Italian Opera (London, England)
• Covent Garden Theatre
• Ballet dancers > 19th century
• Dance > Caricatures and cartoons

Genre/Form

• Lithographs.
• Cartoons (Commentary)

Biography (note)

• The prints in this collection are mounted india paper lithographs, as in the version held by Harvard College Library. The images are the same as those published by E. Gambart in a larger format, 31 x 44 cm., and printed on heavyweight paper. The satirical element emerges more fully in the complete collection of twelve prints.
• Although the performing company at Covent Garden Theatre in London assumed the name "Royal Italian Opera" in 1847, it was in fact a resident company. The name referred to the fact that the operas presented there under the leadership of conductor Michael Costa were sung in Italian, regardless of their original language. In 1892, when Richard Wagner's Ring cycle was presented there, the word "Italian" was finally dropped.

Contents

No. 4, The subscriber's privilege -- No. 6, Success -- No. 7, The rehearsal -- No. 10, Ladies' dressing room.

Call Number

*MGZFX Gue T Roy 1-4

OCLC

825121803

Author

Guerin, Théodore.

Title

[The Royal Italian Opera before & behind the curtain. Selections] [graphic] / Th. Guerin.

Imprint

[London? : E. Gambart?, 1853?]

Biography

The prints in this collection are mounted india paper lithographs, as in the version held by Harvard College Library. The images are the same as those published by E. Gambart in a larger format, 31 x 44 cm., and printed on heavyweight paper. The satirical element emerges more fully in the complete collection of twelve prints.

Although the performing company at Covent Garden Theatre in London assumed the name "Royal Italian Opera" in 1847, it was in fact a resident company. The name referred to the fact that the operas presented there under the leadership of conductor Michael Costa were sung in Italian, regardless of their original language. In 1892, when Richard Wagner's Ring cycle was presented there, the word "Italian" was finally dropped.

Local Note

Cataloging funds provided by Friends of Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

For the complete series, published in a different format, see: (S) *MGZFV-Res. ++ 73-600.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Local Subject

Dance rehearsals -- 19th century.

Research Call Number

*MGZFX Gue T Roy 1-4