24.00 USD
This is a beautiful and difficult to find full length portrait of La Cavalieri, attributed to Aimé Dupont of New York City. Following the success of her Paris performances in Umberto Giordano's opera, "Fedora," in which she starred opposite the great tenor, Enrico Caruso, Cavalieri traveled with Caruso across the Atlantic to New York City where, in 1906, she repeated that success with the Metropolitan Opera Company. She would remain with the "Met" for two more seasons.
A couple of interesting points: First, in 1906, the year la Cavalieri traveled to New York, the Met underwent changes that resulted, for one thing, in the hiring of their own photographer, so we can probably date this portrait to 1906, since prior to that reorganization, the Dupont studio handled most of that work.
Also, Aimé Dupont himself, had passed away in 1900, so this portrait was probably taken by Dupont's American wife (now widow), Etta Greer, a celebrated photographer in her own right, who had developed a reputation years before, while living in Paris, for her portraits of Opera singers. Since Dupont's death, Mme. Greer had maintained the Dupont studio.
On the back of the card we see that it was printed in Germany, like so many postcards of the period, and was apparently published by the New York offices of Breitkopf & Härtel, a sheet music publisher founded in Leipzig, in 1719, making it the oldest such publisher in the world.
It is quite something to imagine those two famous opera stars, Cavalieri and Caruso onstage together at the Met. First, La Cavalieri, orphaned at an early age, and running away as a teenager from her strict Catholic orphanage, to become first, a cafe singer, and only after great effort, and only six years since her operatic debut in Pagliacci, to find herself on that famous stage. And then, the great Caruso, himself from a background so humble that it was not until he was 18 years old, employed, like Cavalieri, as a poor cafe singer, that he was able to afford his first new pair of shoes. That the two of them should have come so far :)
A wonderful image of the very beautiful Lina Cavalieri, in very nice unposted condition. Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
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redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!