Special Collections & Archives is proud to unveil two recently processed collections related to opera in New Orleans.
The Anthony M. LaRocca Opera Scrapbook contains autographed images and programs from famed opera singers, as well as newspaper clippings about New Orleans opera performances. Autographed images include Charles Anthony, Giuseppe Valdengo, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Tito Gobbi, Astrid Varnay, Sherrill Milnes, Giuseppe di Stefano, Eugene Conley, and Italo Tajo, among others. Autographed programs include performances by the New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA) and the Metropolitan Opera. The scrapbook was collected and assembled by avid opera fan and memorabilia collector Anthony M. LaRocca, a lifelong resident of New Orleans and frequent retreatant at Manresa, the Jesuit retreat center in Louisiana. LaRocca received a Purple Heart for his service as a Marine in World War II and then went on to work for Church Typewriter Service and St. Henry Church.
The Boris Borodin and Maria Mayhoff Scrapbook contains images of Borodin and Mayhoff, brother-and-sister-in-law opera singers who both performed with the New Orleans Opera Association.
Contralto Maria Mayhoff-Freudenberg (simply Mayhoff in her performance career) came to New Orleans as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe in the1930s and petitioned for United States citizenship in 1945. Mayhoff-Freudenberg was an inaugural member of the New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA). She performed the titular role in NOOA’s 1943 debut summer season performance of Carmen, and went on to perform over a dozen roles with NOOA. Prior to her time in New Orleans, Mayhoff-Freudenberg attended the National Austrian Academy and performed with both the Vienna Opera and the New Orleans Symphony. She also performed as a soloist at social events throughout New Orleans from the 1940s-1950s.
Operatic bass Boris Borodin was born April 10, 1898 in Russia, and immigrated to the United States in 1936 where he became a naturalized citizen. He performed twice with NOOA in the 1940s and later with the Boston Grand Opera Company. Borodin’s brother, Benjamin L. Freudenberg, was married to Maria MayhoffFreudenberg. Borodin passed away in July of 1993.
Both of these collections are available for research in the Booth-Bricker Reading Room at Loyola University New Orleans.To schedule an appointment, email us at [email protected] or call 504-864-7063.