Studio portrait of Madame Majeroni in costume as Mary Stuart. Melbourne, circa 1890.

A$350 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Albumen print photograph, cabinet card format, 164 x 106 mm (mount); recto of mount with gilt imprint of Stewart Co., 40 42 Bourke St., East, near Parliament House, Melbourne ; verso blank; both the print and mount are in fine condition. A rare potograph of the Italian tragic actress Madame Majeroni (née Giulia Tessero: Italy, 1848 1903, Carlton, Melbourne) who, together with her husband, fellow actor Eduardo Majeroni, played a significant part in the history of Australian colonial theatre in the late nineteenth century. The Majeronis were described at the time of Eduardo s death as one of the most brilliant ornaments of the Melbourne stage . Giulia was the niece of the great tragedienne Adelaide Ristori, and had married Eduardo (1840-1891) a member for many years of Ristori s touring theatre company as a very young woman. At the end of the Ristori company s phenomenally successful Australian tour of 1875, the Majeronis stayed on in Australia. Up until Eduardo s death in 1891, the couple entertained Australian theatregoers in Melbourne, Ballarat, Sydney, Adelaide and elsewhere with their popular performances of tragic pieces, in between tours of the United States, Europe, India and China. One of Adelaide Ristori s most famous roles was the title role in Schiller s play, Mary Stuart, the Catholic Queen . In this apparently unrecorded photograph, taken in the Melbourne studio of Stewart Co. between 1889 and 1896 (see below), her niece Madame Majeroni is dressed in costume for t

• Binding: Hardcover

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