Photograph Album – Theater and Opera Photographs – Habima, Hamatateh and the Israeli Opera – Israel, 1920-1960s

Photograph Album – Theater and Opera Photographs – Habima, Hamatateh and the Israeli Opera – Israel, 1920-1960s
Album with about 80 photographs; most of them document the activity of Habima theater and the Israeli Opera from the day of foundation. Israel, 1920s-1960s (a number of photographs from the 1970s).
In the album:
• 24 photographs from the early years of Habima theater, 1920s through 1940s, among them: preparation of masks for the play "HaOtzar" and scenes from the same play. Photographer: Avraham Soskin, Tel-Aviv, 1929. Signed in the plate; group photographs of the actors, stage workers and administrative team of Habima in the 1920s, 30s and 40s; Habima people with the Russian director Aleksei Dikiy (1930) and the director Barukh Chemerinsky and set designer Emanuel Luftglas, [1934]; portrait photograph of Hanna Rovina, signed "S. Alexander" (probably Sasha Alexander), dedicated in Rovina's handwriting to "Yehezkel – a colleague" (Hebrew), and signed by her. [1930s or 40s]; and more.
• Two photographs of scenes out of a play staged by Hamatateh theater, and a photograph of an amphitheater in Haifa (empty) while staging a play [ca. 1935].
• 44 photographs of operas by the Israeli Opera, preparing stage sets for operas, procedure of work prior to staging and more. 1940-1960s. Among them: Edis de Philippe, founder of the opera, with set designer Yehezkel Goldman on the stage of Habima theater, dated 1951 and dedicated to Goldman in de Philippe's handwriting; scenes out of various operas, among them Don Pasquale (1958), Nabucodonosor (Nabucco, 1958), Samson and Delilah, (1961), The Pearl Fishers (1964), and more.
• Other photographs, including photographs of the Sderot Cinema building, constructed for the Eretz-Israeli Theater and used by Habima in its early days, Eden Cinema building in Tel-Aviv which served the Israeli Opera during its early days, and more.
Most of Habima photographs are titled on the back by hand. The Israeli Opera photographs are partly titled on the back, by hand and ink-stamped by various photographers: "Studio Alexander", D. Rosenblum, "Zalmaniya 'Pri Or'" and more. Most photographs are titled on the album's leaves.
Habima theater was founded in Moscow in 1917 by Nahum Zemach, Menachem Gnessin and Hanna Rovina. In 1927 the group split: Zemach and some of the actors settled in New York, while the others immigrated to Palestine. Shortly afterwards it was decided to reorganize the theater as a collective and from the 1930s for a long period of time the directors were chosen only among the members of the collective. Habima functioned as a collective until 1969.
The Israeli Opera was founded by the singer Edis de Philippe in 1947. For lack of a permanent residence, the opera appeared during its first years on different stages and until 1954 performed every Tuesdays in Habima theater.
Photographs: 6.5X4.5 cm to 24X18.5 cm., album: 38.5X30 cm. Good to fair overall condition. Stains, creases and blemishes. A number of photographs are torn (with open tears). Some of the opera's photographs are mounted on the album's leaves. The leaves are loose and some are detached. Blemishes, tears, creases and stains to tissue guards. Blemishes and tears to binding.