SHAMUS O'BRIEN PLAY CAST - AUTOGRAPH 02/12/1897 CO-SIGNED BY: JOSEPH O'MARA, DENIS O'SULLIVAN - HFSID 35305

SHAMUS O'BRIEN OPERA CAST: JOSEPH O'MARA and DENIS O'SULLIVAN
The original cast members signs their names in black ink
Signatures: "Joseph O'Mara" and "Denis O'Sullivan/ "Shamus O'Brien" Opera Co./ Feb 12th/97" in faded black ink. 1 page, 7x4, affixed to 8¾x5¼ piece of paper. Feburary 12, 1897. Captioned on bottom: "Cast of "Shamus O'Brien" Opera by Villars Stanford. Joseph O'Mara Dennis O'Sullivan". Shamus O'Brien was composed by Charles Villiers Stanford in 1896 as a comic opera to a libretto by George H. Jessop. Irish opera singer JOSEPH O'MARA (1864-1927) was famous in the Victorian era for his performances throughout Europe; most notably his securing the title role in the original production of Arthur Sullivan's Ivanhoe (1891) at the newly built Royal English Opera House in London before joining the Italian Opera Company in works such as Cavalleria rusticana, Faust, Carmen, and Lonhengrin. O'Mara created the tenor lead, Mike Murphy, in Shamus O'Brien which would end up being one of his signature roles; he went on to appear on Broadway before opening his own Traveling Opera Company in 1912. DENIS O'SULLIVAN (1868-1906) was an American-born singer who studied music in San Francisco, London and Paris before making his operatic debut in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore (1895) in Dublin. In 1896 he sang the title role in the first performance of Shamus O'Brien. O'Sullivan continued performing throughout Europe and on Broadway in America before his early death in 1906, after which the Denis O'Sullivan Medal was created in his honor, and is still awarded to this day at the Feis Ceoil Music Festival in Dublin. Toned. Soiled and worn. Binding holes in left margin. Creased throughout. Irregularly cut. Stained throughout. Otherwise, fine condition.