Scope and arrangement
The collection consists of noncommercial recordings primarily of opera performances by major American and European houses from 1936 to 1981, collected and in many cases recorded by Richard McGuinnOpera houses represented in the collection include the Bayreuth Festival, Covent Garden, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, San Francisco Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. The recordings were privately made in-house or from radio broadcasts.
Also included in the collection are radio broadcasts from the late 1960s to 1981 of concerts by major American orchestras, and performances by popular music artists.