This satin programme was produced for a performance of Raymond Rôze's three act opera <i>Joan of Arc, </i>an evening in the Raymond Rôze English Opera Season 1913 in the presence of King George V and Queen Mary at London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 13 December 1913. The opera was produced in a concert version earlier that month and reviewed in <i>The Musical Times</i>, 1 December 1913.
The composer Raymond Rôze (1875-1920) was Musical Director of the Royal Opera House and his three-act opera Joan of Arc was premiered there on 1 November 1913. The son of the French soprano Marie Rôze, he attempted to establish English as a significant language for opera, at a time when few were written in English. He had studied in Brussels with Arthur de Greef before working in England at the Lyceum Theatre where he was Musical Director. He also established a singing school in London in 1899 and was Musical Director for various theatre companies. His output consisted mainly of incidental music for plays including a number at His Majesty's Theatre under Sir Herbert Tree, including <i>Trilby</i> in 1895. His music was twice performed in London's Promenade concerts in 1901 and 1911, and he was the founding conductor of the British Symphony Orchestra, formed in 1919 from demobilised soldiers returning to London after World War I.
A review in <i>The Times</i> was very critical of the opera’s disjointed nature and warned that ‘a drama with the characters singing and an orchestra to accompany them is not necessarily an opera.’ <i>Joan of Arc</i> received a further performance in Paris at a fundraising event for the Red Cross in 1917 but was ultimately unsuccessful.