Covent Garden

Inscribed `Presentation to Denis Hoby, violin’ and `July 1948.’ Over 90 autograph signatures (mostly musicians) are on the endpapers, headed by the composer and conductor Constant Lambert, son of the Australian painter George Lambert. From 1931, Constant Lambert was the Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Vic-Wells Ballet, and continued in this role as the company became The Royal Ballet. He conducted the first ballet (The Sleeping Beauty) and the first opera (The Fairy Queen) which opened the Royal Opera House in 1946. Other signatures of musicians include the conductor Karl Rankl and violin Harold Fairhurst. Loosely inserted is a photograph of musicians in Bavarian costume, inscribed on the back `Royal Phil orchestra, Sir Robert Beecham, Glyneborne Sussex, season 1951, Conductor Fritz Busch, (Stage band) Don Giovanni, Mozart’