Opera in Postcards 1888-1915: A Visual History - Paperback

by Patricia J. Novak (Author)

Archivist and opera enthusiast Patricia J. Novak takes us into a fascinating world during the golden age of the picture postcard. Selected from a much larger personal collection, the more than 560 postcards in this volume explore the intersection of operatic history and postcard culture. Together, they tell the story of a remarkable period shaped by rapid advances in transportation, printing, and photography.

Faster and larger steamships made it possible for singers to build truly international careers, traveling between the great opera capitals of Europe and the growing cultural centers of the United States and beyond. At the same time, new developments in chromolithography and photography, combined with the elegant designs of the Belle Époque and Art Nouveau, produced postcards of remarkable beauty.

Singers, theaters, and the new wave of verismo operas could now be captured and shared in ways that had never been possible before. These postcards brought the glamorous world of opera into homes around the world, where they could be collected, exchanged, displayed, and enjoyed by generations of opera and postcard admirers.