Dr. Leopold Damrosch was the director during 1884-85, the SECOND season of the newly created Metropolitan Opera House. *The NY fare of Italian opera was changed to German, and many famous firsts were presented in the next seasons. *He died on 15 February 1885 and the leadership was passed to his son, Walter. *The Twilight of the Gods was presented on 19 March 1890.

There is no date that I can find in the libretto, BUT the program (which is attached with a vintage straight pin to the CHARACTERS page!) [see SCAN - below] states that it was presented on Friday, March 13th, 1891.

Bear with me, please, as I make some further observations. Whomever this once belonged to must have been an active opera aficionado. On the top right border of the front cover, in pencil is written - With Sebastian 1889 + 1890 / twice 1891. Below that, just to the right of the printed logo [see SCAN - above] is written in black pen - Mar.13/91 Marnie Caroline Sebastian + me-.

On the CHARACTERS page, facing THE ARGUMENT page, in ink I find names penned in beside the various roles (ex., Meislinger is next to GUDRUN).

The text of the poem is in English on the left-facing page and in German is on the opposite right-facing page. BOTH pages have the same number, so that the TOTAL number of pages is twice 24.

Just a note about my usual strictly personal comparative qualification on the condition of this item - for its age and the type of paper it is printed on, it is in comparatively absolutely marvelous condition, but I substituted my Excellent for GREAT+. The text part is basically NOT noticeably yellowed.

The back cover is unattached and is frayed along the bottom and left borders, with a small tear/crease at the top edge (the paper seems to be quite brittle) A VERY stylish grand piano by Wm. Knabe + Co. is pictured in the upper half, with text below about the manufacturer. It could easily be cropped just to mat and frame the ad.

The spine is bare of its paper cover (actual sewn binding intact) except for a couple small portions remaining on the back cover (unattached).The right side and top-right corner of the front cover have small tears and smallish border fragments missing due to its brittleness, but as you can note in the above scan, there is ample room on all sides of the main cover printing to crop, mat and frame it. The inside front cover pictures an ornate Knabe upright piano accompanied by text about the maker.

Book in GREAT+ condition!

This is one of seven early Metropolitan Opera House Librettos which I currently have on eBay. CLICK below to see a list of all of my NeW MiLlEnNiUm Specials

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OK, so I am finally getting around to opening more of the scores of boxes of MOSTLY oldish, and probably long OUT OF PRINT, art-related and other reference books. Although they are ALL from my personal library, they were never organized on the 10+ bookcases-full that are still untouched. You will find MANY treasures among these new offerings, and ALL at a VERY modest below-my-cost opening bid and, as is usually the case, with NO RESERVE.

My eBay goodies are offered in the hopes that I may be able to share my finds with others. They are the result of almost 50 years of collecting!

Please visit my website for other collectible treasures of all kinds: http://www.Kardas.net for An Eclectic Experience. Further useful collector information may be found on my AUCTION INFO pages, including hints for successful bidding, record keeping and some of the problems you may encounter.

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