Silk and satin theatre programmes were frequently produced in the 18th and 19th centuries to commemorate special theatrical and musical events, the less expensive ones with integral fringing made from fraying cut edges, and the more expensive with separately applied silk or metallic fringes. This programme featuring photographs by Walery and probably printed by them, was produced for a State Performance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, on Tuesday 4th July 1893, in honour of the marriage two days later of Prince George the Duke of York (1865-1936), the second son of Prince Albert (1841-1910) and Princess Alexandra (1844-1925), to Princess Mary of Teck (1867-1953), also known as May, after her birth month. The couple went on to become King George V and Queen Mary.

The evening was a glittering affair with a royal party of forty heralded into the theatre by the Band of the Coldstream Guards, the Prince of Wales escorted into the Royal Box by the Lord Chamberlain. Despite her image being on the programme, Queen Victoria was not in attendance, never attending the theatre after the death of her husband Prince Albert. The theatre, transformed overnight by Augustus Harris and an army of staff, boasted banks of flowers, silk drapery, swags of electric lights and even a huge wedding bell of white roses with orange blossom bell-ropes and a clapper of electric light hanging over the stairs. Gounoud's Romeo et Juliette was performed in French, with the famous Australian opera star Nellie Melba as Juliette, and the Polish tenor Jean de Reszke as Romeo, but without the last act which was considered too tragic for such a happy occasion. The gold Tiffany opera glasses decorated with pearls and diamonds that Sir Augustus Harris presented to Princess May that evening are in the Royal Collection.