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Guide to the Luryier Diamond Opera Collection
ARS.0083
ARS.0083
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Title: Luryier Diamond Opera Collection
Dates: 1908-1994
Collection number: ARS.0083
Creator:
Diamond, Luryier, 1914-
Collection Size:
51 boxes
: 1850 7" open reel tapes
Contributing Institution:
Archive of Recorded Sound
Abstract: Unpublished live performances of opera on open reel tape, from the collection of Luryier Diamond.
Language of Material:
Multiple languages
Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for
assistance.
Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.
The Luryier Diamond Opera Collection was donated to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound by Luryier Diamond in 2008.
Luryier Diamond Opera Collection, ARS-0083. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif.
This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Opera enthusiast Luryier Diamond (b. 1914) is a photographer, teacher and photo archivist at Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu,
Hawaii. His collection consists of live audio recordings on tape of opera from the 1930s through the 1990s. The collection
is particularly strong in the works of Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Donizetti, Rossini, Puccini, Mozart, Massenet, Berlioz, and
Bellini, but many more obscure composers and performances are also included. There are recordings from Royal Opera Covent
Garden, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro la Fenice, and
the San Francisco Opera. The collection also contains unusual items such as Maria Callas' "Rome Walk Out" during the premier
of Norma in 1958, and a transfer of a circa 1908 set of Carmen in German (considered the first complete issued opera recording.)
Diamond was almost certainly part of the collector circuit and copied and traded recordings among his peers. Most of these
tapes are an unknown generation, but, unlike many such collections, the original source is frequently noted: i.e. in-house,
from radio and television broadcasts, or taped from transcriptions or lacquers. In some cases recordings appear to be one
generation from masters. A few are commercial releases, or copies of commercial releases.
The collection is entirely tape recordings on seven-inch reels, numbered 1 through 1787 (plus an "E" series). All tapes are
well-labeled, and accompanying the tapes are files for clippings, programs, and notes removed from tape boxes. There are also
files arranged alphabetically by composer which include information on personnel, location, date, means of recording and source
(i.e. "taped from network acetates.") For full content listing, please contact the Archive.
Live sound recordings
Operas