New issues on 14 January 2025  

OPERA SINGERS - LUCIEN MURATORE

Of Piedmontese ancestry, Lucien Muratore was born in 1876 in Marseille where he began a career as an actor at a very young age. After a stint at the Paris Conservatory, he who thought he was a baritone discovered himself as a tenor. In 1905, he performed at the Paris Opera. He was quickly given the main tenor roles, notably in Carmen, Paillasse and Tosca. He also created, among others, the role of Bacchus in Bacchus triumphant by Camille Erlanger in Bordeaux in 1909 and that of Hercules in Déjanire by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1911 at the Monte-Carlo Opera. Muratore's fame would take on a more international dimension when he became the husband of "the most beautiful woman in the world", the Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri. He devoted his last years to teaching singing.

Design and line-engraving: Pierre ALBUISSON
Printing process: 5 colours steel-engraving
Size of the stamp: 40,85 x 52 mm vertical
Quantity of issue: 36 000 stamps
Sheet of 6 stamps with illuminations

OPERA SINGERS - LINA CAVALIERI

Born in 1874 in Viterbo, Natalina known as Lina Cavalieri became an orphan at 15 years old. She began in vaudeville and sang in café-concerts before becoming an opera soprano in La Bohème then with Enrico Caruso at the Metropolitan Opera. In the 1900s, Lina Cavalieri achieved the status of a true international star and performed in the world's greatest opera houses. She doesn't have an extraordinary voice, but she knows it perfectly and makes the best use of it. Her stage presence, her instinctive and natural way of playing make her unforgettable. A symbol of feminine beauty, she arouses admiration. In 1913, she married for the second time the Italian tenor Lucien Muratore. She died with her fourth husband in the bombing of Florence on February 8, 1944.

Design: Cyril DE LA PATELLIÈRE
Line-engraving: Claude JUMELET
Printing process: 3 colours steel-engraving
Size of the stamp: 40,85 x 52 mm vertical
Quantity of issue: 36 000 stamps
Sheet of 6 stamps with illuminations

TRICENTENARY OF THE DEATH OF JACQUES III DE MATIGNON

A descendant of one of the oldest families in Normandy, Jacques III de Matignon (1644-1725) had three children, including Jacques de Goyon-Matignon who married Louise-Hippolyte Grimaldi in 1715, eldest daughter and heiress of Prince Antoine I of Monaco. Recognized as Prince of Monaco on the death of his wife, under the name of Jacques I, he brought into the House of Grimaldi the possessions and titles inherited from his father Jacques III de Matignon, including the county of Torigni, the baronies of Saint-Lô, de la Luthumière, Hambye, Moyon, Plessis-Grimoult, La Roche-Tesson. Torigni Castle was one of the favorite residences of the princes of Monaco until the end of the Ancien Régime. Likewise, the Hôtel Matignon, which Jacques III had acquired in 1723, was their Parisian residence in the 18^thcentury.

Design and line-engraving: Elsa CATELIN from documents © Archives of the Prince's Palace of Monaco
Printing process: Intaglio and offset
Size of the stamp: 30 x 40,85 mm vertical
Quantity of issue: 40 000 stamps
Sheet of 10 stamps with illuminations

These issues will be on sale at the “Office des Timbres”, the “Musée des Timbres et des Monnaies”, the post offices and philatelic counters of the Principality, the Monaco stamp-dealers as well as the “Carré d’Encre” in Paris, France. They will be included, with other values, in the 1st Part of the philatelic programme 2025 and offered to our subscribers and customers.