Opera signed - 7 letters from Mary Garden - Original Envelopes & unseen before

	£		90
	$		119

Mary Garden was a key figure in American Opera. Letters in their Original envelopes to Gordon Whelan (photo included) 7 by Mary Garden and one by her sister Agnes Walsh. These were part of my grandfather's collection and gained from Gordon Whelan himself. My grand father was well known in Opera circles and started the Record Collector Magazine.
Mary Garden was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century. Described as "the Sarah Bernhardt of opera", Garden was an exceptional actress as well as a talented singer. She was particularly admired for her nuanced performances which employed interesting uses of vocal color. Possessing a beautiful lyric voice that had a wide vocal range and considerable amount of flexibility, Garden first arose to success in Paris during the first decade of the 20th century. She became the leading soprano at the Opéra-Comique; notably portraying roles in several world premieres, including Mélisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). She worked closely with Jules Massenet, in whose operas she excelled. Massenet notably wrote the title role in his opera Chérubin (1905) for her. In 1907, Oscar Hammerstein convinced Garden to join the Manhattan Opera House in New York where she became an immediate success. By 1910 she was a household name in America and Garden appeared in operas in several major American cities; including performing with the Boston Opera Company and the Philadelphia Opera Company. Additionally, Garden appeared in two silent films made by Samuel Goldwyn. After retiring from the opera stage in 1934, Garden worked as a talent scout for MGM. She also gave lectures and recitals, mostly on the life and works of Claude Debussy, until 1949. She retired to Scotland and in 1951 published a successful autobiography, Mary Garden's Story. She died in Aberdeen, the town of her birth in 1967. (Wiki)
Gordon Whelan was a piano player and BBC Broadcaster in the 1940’s and 1950‘s. His father was Albert Whelan. Albert was a music hall star who first made his name in the Western Australian gold fields before moving to Britain with his son. Gordon and Albert are seen in the Pathetone clip “Pathetone Weekly now presents another of its ‘Talkie Topical’ stars.  http://www.britishpathe.com/video/albert-whelan In 1930. Gordon plays the piano for his father. Albert featured in the “This is Your Life!” programme of 1957 (Gordon is present too.) http://www.bigredbook.info/albert_whelan.html and in a number of films such as stars on Parade (1936) and Danny Boy (1941).. Gordon also played piano for actress Anna May Wong in 1933 while she took a week long engagement at the palace theatre Blackpool. She was filing ‘Tiger Bay’ at the time and took a week break to fulfil the engagement. He worked for the BBC presenting programmes that evolved around his exceptional record collection. He presented music on the BBC Home Service during World War Two and continued the Genome Programme into the 1950’s. He also contributed to the Record Collector magazine. He was very well connected as these letters suggest.The picture included is from the estate of H Hugh Harvey who it is dedicated to.

The letters are 100% genuine having been given by Gordon Whelan himself. Signatures of Mary Garden can achieve sums higher than offered here!
I am happy to combine postage for multiple purchases.