Jeanne Beauvais scores, correspondence, and other material, 1927-1988.
Overview
The collection includes autographed letters, photographs and theatrical ephemera associated with her career. The bulk of the collection consists of print and manuscript scores by composers Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Leonard Bernstein, Theodore Chanler and others; many of these are personally inscribed.
Dates
- Creation: 1943 - 1988:
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright restrictions may apply
Extent
1 collection (2 Boxes (1 linear foot), including 24 scores and 17 photographs,)The collection provides a glimpse into the collaborative friendship of Jeanne Beauvais, a classical singer and stage performer, and Virgil Thomson, a composer and music critic as it contains several autographed scores Thomson sent to Jeanne Beauvais, as well as their correspondence. Other scores in the collection, most of them autographed and inscribed to Beauvais, include those by Leonard Bernstein, Ned Rorem and Theodore Chanler. The collection's photographs, playbills, and theatrical ephemera related to Beauvais' career provide a brief look at musical theater during the post-War World II era.
<emph>Biographical Note</emph>
Jeanne Beauvais (1917 – 2007) was born in New York City. Relatively little is known about her early life except that her American born mother and French born father relocated the family to Paris shortly after World War I. Her father died a short time later and she and her mother returned to New York where Beauvais developed her talents as a classical singer. At the height of her career, she performed for troops stationed overseas, and in operettas, musicals and recitals. Notable performances include Rosalinda, which opened at the Imperial Theater in 1942, and Mr. Strauss goes to Boston, performed in 1945.
During the 1940s, Beauvais took up residence in the artists' studio situated above Carnegie Hall. In addition to performing, she also taught singing.
Widely considered a veteran Broadway performer, Jeanne Beauvais performed and socialized with many leading composers, actors and artists of the day, including Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem and Leonard Bernstein. During the 1950s, she gained even greater attention for her successful efforts to preserve Carnegie Hall from impending demoliton. She revived her career during the 1970s when she appeared in The Boyfriend, a role she originated in 1958. She also performed with the Light Opera of Manhattan and the After-Dinner Opera Company.
Jeanne Beauvais died in New York City on July 17, 2007.
<emph>Arrangement</emph>
The contents of the collection have been organized chronologically and arranged in the following series:
- Series I. Correspondence,1951 - 1988, n.d.
- Series II. Scores,1927 - 1967
- Series III. Photographs, 1943 - 1946, n.d.
- Series IV. Miscellaneous, n.d.
Physical Location
Merritt Room
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was purchased from J&J Lubrano Music Antiquarians in November, 2007
Processed by:
Emilyn L. Brown
- Title
- Jeanne Beauvais scores, correspondence, and other material, 1927-1988.
- Author
- Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- mus00020
Repository Details
Part of the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library Repository
The Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library is the primary repository of musical materials at Harvard. The Music Library’s collecting mission is to serve music teaching and research programs in the Music Department and throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In addition, it supports the musical needs of the broader Harvard community as well as an international scholarly constituency. We collect books, musical scores, serial titles, sound recordings and video formats, microforms, and rare and archival materials that support research in a wide variety of musical disciplines including historical musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, composition, and historically informed performance practice, as well as interdisciplinary areas related to music. The special collections include archival collections from the 19th, 20th and 21st century.
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