Costume Collection
The Sembrich Museum’s costume collection includes some twenty complete costumes and numerous accessories that were once worn by Marcella Sembrich during her distinguished operatic career. According to Robert Tuggle, Director of Archives at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Sembrich’s collection is “perhaps the finest surviving examples of the grandeur of opera in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” This magnificent collection has been miraculously preserved, and together with photographs and recordings, sheds light on an early period of opera that has all but vanished. In 1983 the Metropolitan Opera selected Sembrich’s enchanting “Queen of the Night” costume for display in the Met lobby to mark the company’s centennial season.
Due to the fragile nature of the collection, costumes are selectively displayed and rotated from season to season. Visitors with a specific interest in viewing the costumes are advised to contact the Sembrich Museum in advance for updated information on the current season’s display.
Aimee Dupont, Marcella Sembrich as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”, circa 1900
