A collection of programmes from the King's Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre and Her Majesty's Theatre. The collection spans from 1823 onwards, which encompasses many name changes for this theatre. (The theatre was called King's Theatre from 1714-1837, Her Majesty's from 1837-1901, His Majesty's from 1901-1952 and Her Majesty's from 1953 onwards).

King's Theatre:
The collection contains four programmes (one is a duplicate) from the period of the King's Theatre. These are from mixed concerts in various parts of the theatre. There is a programme dated 5/6/1823 from the Great Theatre, a programme dated19/7/1830 from the Great Room and a programme dated 9/6/1837 from the Great Concert Room.

Her Majesty's:
There are 14 programmes from the first period of Her Majesty's Theatre. These date from 1841 to 1901 and consist of programmes from operas, plays and concerts.

His Majesty's:
The programmes from the period of His Majesty's Theatre form the bulk of the collection, and date from 1902 to 1949. There is a substantial amount of programmes from the 1920s, the majority of which are from opera. Quite a few of these are from the British National Opera. The programmes from 1902 to 1919 are largely from plays. However, there are a number of programmes from the Thomas Beecham Opera Comique Season in 1910. There is one chamber music concert programme from 1948.

Her Majesty's:
The collection contains programmes from the second period of Her Majesty's Theatre, a substantial number of which are from musicals. There are a few programmes from the British premiere of West Side Story (Bernstein) in 1958: there are also a number of newspaper reviews from this opening run.

Arrangement:
Programmes are arranged chronologically.

1823 -

-

Not Specific

• British national Opera Company 1922 - 1929
• Thomas Beecham Opera Comique Season -

• Her Majesty's Theatre, 1837-1901 (Was Queen's Theatre to 1714, King's Theatre to 1837; Became His Majesty's Theatre 1901, Became Her Majesty's Theatre 1952)
• Her Majesty's Theatre, 1952- (Was Queen's Theatre to 1714, King's Theatre to 1837, Her Majesty's Theatre to 1901, His Majesty's Theatre to 1952)
• His Majesty's Theatre (was Queen's Theatre to 1714, King's Theatre to 1837, Her Majesty's to Theatre 1901; Became Her Majesty's Theatre 1953)
• King's Theatre, London (also called Italian opera house; was Queen's Theatre to 1714; became Her Majesty's 1837, His Majesty's 1901, Her Majesty's 1953)
• London [England]

• 19th century - early 1800-1836
• 19th century - early Victorian 1837-1850
• 19th century - late Victorian 1876-1899
• 19th century - mid Victorian 1851-1875
• 20th century - early 1900-1930
• 20th century - late 1971-1999
• 20th century - mid 1931-1970

College Hall 220-238 Goldhawk Road London W12 9PL

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portraits@rcm.ac.uk

020 7591 4340

020 7589 7740 

Mon-Fri by appointment

The Portraits and Performance History Collection and its associated reading room is housed in a recently adapted space within the RCM's College Hall, its hall of residence for students. There is step-free access for visitors.

The Centre for Performance History (CPH) is a research centre and is also responsible for the stewardship of two well-established RCM research collections, the Museum of Instruments and the Portraits and Performance History Collection (PPHC). The latter houses a diverse collection relating to the history of performance including the RCM’s internationally famous collection of images, comprising 340 original portraits and sculptures and 25,000 prints and photographs, forming the most comprehensive archive of likenesses of musicians in the UK. The collection of 600,000 concert programmes from 1720 to the present day is of major importance for research into the history of music, society and culture.