LAWRENCE TIBBETT - AUTOGRAPH CO-SIGNED BY: ROSA PONSELLE, RUTH MILLER, JANE W. TIBBETT, EDITH MASON, GIUSEPPE STURAM, GANNA WALSKA, PAUL LONGOVE, A. WILLIAM SHERRY, WILLIAM THORNER, MAREK WINDHEIM, GIORGIO POLACCO, LAURENCE WHITE, LUCREZIA BORI - HFSID 161139

OPERA STARS: LAWRENCE TIBBETT, LUCREZIA BORI, PAUL LONGOVE, EDITH MASON, RUTH MILLER, GIORGIO POLACCO, ROSA PONSELLE, A. WILLIAM SHERRY, GIUSEPPE STURAM, WILLIAM THORNER, JANE W. TIBBETT, LAURENCE WHITE and MAREK WINDHEIM
Index card signed by 13 opera stars, including sopranos Rosa Ponselle, Edith Mason and Ruth Miller, baritone Lawrence Tibbett, tenor Marek Windheim, conductor Giorgio Polacco and agent William Thorner, who helped to launch Ponselle's operatic career
Signature: "Laurence White", "L. Bori", "Rosa Ponselle", "Ganna Walska", "Paul Longove", "Lawrence Tibbett" and, on verso, "Ruth Miller/Chamlee", "A. William Sherry/Danbury, Conn", "Jane W. Tibbett", "Marek Windheim", "Edith Mason", "William Thorner", "Giuseppe Sturam" and "Giorgio Pollaco", all in pencil. Erased pencil notations in unknown hand.3x5 card, front and verso. PONSELLE (1897-1981) began her stage career in vaudeville, in a musical act with her sisters. An agent introduced her to Enrico Caruso, who was so impressed with her voice that he secured for her a Metropolitan Opera debut (with Caruso himself in La Forza del Destino). The soprano sang with the Met until 1936, venturing overseas only to London's Covent Gardens and to one performance in Florence (fulfilling a promise to her Italian-born mother.) Ponselle stopped performing after her 1936 marriage. But after her divorce in 1949, she returned to public life as a booster of the Baltimore Civic Opera and a voice coach, tutoring Beverly Sills and Placido Domingo, among others. Although she never returned to the stage, RCA Victor came to her Baltimore home to record many of her songs in 1954. TIBBETT (1896-1960) was the principal baritone singer of Italian roles with the Metropolitan Opera (1923-1950). He also performed on radio and appeared in six films of the 1930s. His first film, The Rogue Song(1930), earned him an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. BORI (1887-1960), a Spanish soprano, was one of the most popular singers to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. Her roles included Carmen, Violetta and Mimi. POLACCO (1873-1960) was an Italian opera conductor known principally for his work in the Italian repertory. He conducted in England, Italy Rio de Jainero and the United States from 1891 to 1930, including three years as principal conductor at Milan's Teatro alla Scala and conductor at the Metropolitan Opera from 1912 to 1917. MASON (1892-1973) was an American soprano. She premiered in 1912 as Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and sang in France before joining the Metropolitan Opera (1915-1917). She married Italian opera conductor Giorgio Polacco in 1919 and became a leading singer at the Chicago Opera Association in 1921. WINDHEIM (1895-1960) was a Polish comedian and operatic tenor and who sang from 1928 to 1936 at the Metropolitan Opera. He then started cropping up in often unbilled bit parts in Hollywood movies between 1937 and 1946, often playing excitable characters with fake French accents. MILLER (1903-1981) was an American lyrical and colortura soprano who premiered in 1912 and performed with the Metropolitan Opera from 1917 to 1918. She retired in 1919 after marrying tenor Mario Chamlee and taught singing; among her students was baritone Theodor Uppman. Also, for a few years after her retirement, Miller could be seen on the screen performing in such titles as The Affairs of Anatol (1921), The Sheik (1921), The Volga Boatman (1926), and her last performance in the 1927 film The King of Kings. THORNER was a voice teacher and agent who persuaded Enrico Caruso to hear Rosa Ponselle in 1918, launching her operatic career. Polish actress and artist WALSKA (1887-1984) led an active life, pursuing an opera career and marrying six husbands and divorcing four of them, before settling down somewhat at her 37-acre estate Lotusland in Santa Barbara, California in 1941. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Notations and show-through touches some signatures. Rounded and worn corners. Otherwise, fine condition.