Joan Sutherland: Designs for a Prima Donna (Signed Deluxe edition)

BONYNGE, Richard (with designs by numerous costume designers for Dame Joan Sutherland). Joan Sutherland: Designs for a Prima Donna. Sydney: The Craftsman's Press, 1985.

Large Folio. Original black cloth boards, blind-embossed to front board with a passage of the score from Bellini's Norma, one of Sutherland's most celebrated roles. Titling and linework stamped in red; musical notation patterns stamped in blind. Endpapers and text printed on Japanese dove-grey textured Mermaid paper. 199 pp. 63 tipped-in colour plates throughout, reproducing original costume designs for twenty-five of Sutherland's operatic roles, each with a detailed introductory essay by Bonynge. Housed in the original red cloth solander case, with a detail from the costume design for I Masnadieri inset to the case. Deluxe first edition. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies, this being number 229. Signed by both Richard Bonynge and Dame Joan Sutherland on the title page.

This volume presents, for the first time in a single collected form, the costume designs created for twenty-five of Sutherland's most significant roles, spanning her breakthrough Covent Garden Lucia of 1959 through to performances of the mid-1980s. Each opera is represented by up to ten tipped-in colour plates reproducing the original designs, offering a rare visual record of the collaborative process behind some of the most celebrated productions in twentieth-century opera.

Near fine in good solander case. Some fading to case as well as loss to title lettering. Cover image plate has some creasing. Slight water markings towards top edge. Minor wearing to cloth where bone clasps close. Volume in fine condition, binding square and tight, no fading or age markings present. Contents in fine condition, clean and bright, free from markings and creasing. Illustration plates in fine condition, colours true.

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Catalogue Number: HH000065.