[NICHOLAS II CORONATION PROGRAMME]: A rare and very attractive large 12 x 17 luxury programme for the performances ...

[NICHOLAS II CORONATION PROGRAMME]: A rare and very attractive large 12 x 17 luxury programme for the performances held in the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, 17th May 1896, and for the public festivities on the occasion of the Holy Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, in Cyrillic. The programme, consisting of eighteen pages, contains rich colourful chromolithograph paintings with ornated gilt presentations for the different activities held on the occasion of Nicholas II coronation. The different pages presenting `on the occasion of the Holy Coronation of His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas Aleksandrovich and Her Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Empress Alexandra Feodorovna«, the performances of the Opera `A Life for the Tsar«, (Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, act 1 and epilogue), music by Mikhail Glinka, words by Baron Egor Rozen; `The Pearl« ballet in one act, libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa, music by Riccardo Drigo; ''Ruslan and Ludmila'', music by Mikhail Glinka; ''Konyok-Gorbunok'' (The Little Humpbacked Horse), ''Yermak Timofeyevich or The Conquest of Siberia'', etc.. Drawings and paintings by A. Riabushkin, E. Samokysh-Sudkovskaya, etc.. Playbills were printed in Aleksandr Levenson Association and in the Imperial Moscow Theatre printing-house in the chromolithograph technique. Such souvenir programmes were presented to the selected and most extraordinary guests who were honoured to attend the gala concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre. In addition to the gala concert programme, there is a detailed description of the festive events during the coronation public celebration, such as theatrical performances, circus performers with circus of Nikitin Brothers and V.B. Durov (with performing animals and trained bears, acrobats, gymnasts, magicians, jugglers, storytellers, singers, ventriloquists, and others), accordion players and singers, horn players, balalaika players and dancers, choral performances, carousels, and fireworks. Bounded recently in black leather to protect the eleven large contemporary sheets. VG to EX £1500-2000