Guide to the Luryier Diamond Opera Collection ARS.0083
Finding aid prepared by Franz Kunst
Archive of Recorded Sound
© 2011
Braun Music Center
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Stanford University
Stanford, California, 94305-3076
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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Abstract: Unpublished live performances of opera on open reel tape, from the collection of Luryier Diamond.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
Box 1, Box 2, Box 3, Box 4, Box 5, Box 6, Box 7, Box 8, Box 9, Box 10, Box 11, Box 12, Box 13, Box 14, Box 15, Box 16, Box 17, Box 18, Box 19, Box 20, Box 21, Box 22, Box 23, Box 24, Box 25, Box 26, Box 27, Box 28, Box 29, Box 30, Box 31, Box 32, Box 33, Box 34, Box 35, Box 36, Box 37, Box 38, Box 39, Box 40, Box 41, Box 42, Box 43, Box 44, Box 45, Box 46, Box 47, Box 48
2. Documentation
Physical Description:
35 folders
Box 49
Contents List A-Z
Box 50
Paper Inserts 1-1359
Box 51
Paper Inserts 1423-1787