Dresden Opera Album.
Early 20th-century Finishing School Project
[Education] (Finishing School.) Gould, Mignon M. Dresden Opera Album. [Dresden]: 1908-09.
Large 4to.; 45 leaves neatly mounted with cast lists, photographs, programs and program notes, over 100 postcards, additional ephemera; contemporary green morocco backed green cloth, spine lettered in gilt.
This album was put together by seventeen year old Mignon M. Gould (1891-1976), as a student at her finishing school at Dresden during the 1908-09 term.
The first leaf includes a photograph of the front of her school residence with the mistress of the establishment clutching her pet dog. The photograph is surrounded by signatures, presumably of the other young ladies with whom she boarded, some of whom were probably family members of the sizeable British Legation to Dresden.
As part of her education Mignon included an alarming amount of opera. During a nine month period she managed to absorb every opera of the season going to pretty well every production at the Dresden Opera.
Opera in Germany at this period was predominately sung in German translation so her exposure probably
went a long way to help her acquire German language skills.
(#4657003)
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