Autograph signature

On an album leaf ca. 111 x 141 mm. In blue ink on blue-green paper, inscribed to "Jim," and dated April 3, 1949.

Together with a three-quarter length role portrait photograph of the soprano as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier ca. 257 x 207 mm.

Slightly worn. Czech soprano Jarmila Novotná "made her début in Prague as Mařenka in The Bartered Bride in June 1925. In 1928 she sang Gilda at the Verona Arena, and in 1931 the title role in Offenbach's La Belle Hélène at Berlin. From 1933 to 1938 sang at the Vienna Staatsoper... In Vienna she created the title role in Lehár's Giuditta (1934) opposite Richard Tauber; the performance was broadcast by 120 radio stations. Her American début was as Butterfly at San Francisco in 1939, and she was a valued member of the Metropolitan Opera from 1940 to 1956 where her repertory included Donna Elvira, Pamina, Octavian, Violetta, Freia and Mélisande... She returned to Europe after World War II and was heard again at Salzburg, in Paris and in Vienna... Her recordings, which range from her early years in Prague to her postwar Salzburg Rosenkavalier, evince her charm and interpretative depth... She also appeared in a film of The Bartered Bride directed by Max Ophüls in 1932 that continues to be regarded as one of the most successful translations of opera to the medium of film." Harold Rosenthal and Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online.