Beschreibung:

BALLET, OPERA AND THEATRE -- Archive of documents relating to the Friends of Sadlers Wells and the Old Vic Theatres, for the promotion of opera and drama, from its inception in 1932, as maintained by its honorary secretary, Philip Morrell. Manuscript draft of preliminary statement explaining the aims and subscription terms; typescript drafts dated 6 April 1932 with heavy corrections; fair copy; another version with corrections arising from committee meeting of 15 April and agenda for this meeting; public announcement of the Society. Multiple corrected proofs of various announcements. Six-page list of names and addresses, including autograph signatures of Lilian Baylis, William Plomer, Ethel Sands Arthur Bliss, Wogan Philipps Diana Guinness, Bryan Guinness and many others. Typescript list of names and addresses of supporters, 25pp: a who's who of 1930s society: McKnight Kauffer, Edward Marsh, Asquith, Grant, Bell, Inge, Eliot, Plomer, Cecil, Woolf, Keynes, de la Mare, Gertler, Sassoon, Squire, Forster, Lehmann, Waley, Rothenstein . . . (these from the first four pages alone), and a gazetteer of the most fashionable addresses (Bedford, Berkeley, Belgrave, S. James's, Portman and Cadogan Squares, Knole, Petworth and so forth). Another typed list with annotation (H. G. Wells, G.B.S. added and then scored through). Further annotated lists of subscribers. Provisional list of committee members, including Ottoline Morrell, Lord Berners, Lady Cunard, T. S. Eliot, J. M. Keynes, Sacheverell Sitwell and many others. Signed subscribers' vouchers, including Jim Ede, Bruce Richmond, Lady Bonham-Carter and others. Draft letter to the Morris motor company asking for loan of a lorry; publicity leaflets; copy of typed letter to Lilian Baylis sending subscription monies; booklet of vouchers for the 1932 season; correspondence, printed accounts. Two booklets about the Camargo Society for the production of ballet, with autograph letter to Philip Morrell from Vivienne Haigh Eliot. Typescript report by Geoffrey Toye on 'The Future of Opera in England', May 1932: 'There are certainly no less than 10,000 Societies and probably more . . . singing Cantatas, part-songs and other Choral works . . . this country at the present time seems to supply a large proportion of the world's leading composers of serious music . . . Physiologically, the English race seems to produce voices of great charm, but not in most cases of great volume . . . The Covent Garden Opera House is economically and artistically unsuitable for most of the Operas which English singers are best able to perform.' With: NIJINSKY FOUNDATION MINUTE BOOK: a notebook (228 x 179mm) containing clipped-in typed minutes for a series of meetings held between 25th February and 9th November 1938, chaired by Philip Morrell, with a view to raising funds for the treatment of Vaslav Nijinsky, described in an accompanying leaflet as 'living in a Swiss nursing home, in a kind of mental twilight'. With 23 copies of the programme for a Nijinksy Matinee held at His Majesty's Theatre on 28th May [1937], featuring Markova, Frederick Ashton, John Gielgud, Margot Fonteyn and Giovanni Martinelli With: Programmes for five Ballets Russes seasons in London and Paris, 1922-1934. Choreography by Massine, Nijinsky, Balanchine. Costumes and designs by Picasso, Bakst, Gabo, Braque and Messel. With programme for D'Annunzio's La Pisanelle, June 1913, with costumes and decor by Leon Bakst illustrated in full page plates and a double spread. With magazines and other programmes. (a lot)