Morning journal and courier., 1884-10-15

| ana Cattle Market-FiShting anG
| Foolish Students.
MUNICH, Sept. II.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
When the people of Munich talk abou
grand opera it is no trifing musical diver
sion for couple of superfuous hours tha
they have in mind. Grand opera her,
means, to those who have not unlimited
funds to invest in reserved seat, two hours
OF waiting before the theatre for the door
to open, another hour of waiting for tht
| curtain to rise, and then five full hours more
of standing while the opera is in progress
Thus the people earn their amusement and
know how to appreciate it.
Munich is not remarkably well endowed
with theatres. In fact there is only one the
| atre aside from those run by the State thai
Is worthy of patronage by those who are af
ter real art. The State theatres are two, the
| "Hof-und-National' for grand opera and the
best legitimate tragedy, and the "Residenz'
| for good comedy and ordinary tragedy. The
| former is the largest theatre in Germany
| having 1900 chairs. 1t is an immense struc.
ture 225 feet long by 100 feet broad and 14s
| feet high, with stage 95 feet in breadth by
| 115 feet in depth. There are five galleries
| with ''border-platz' fringing the lowest
These galleries are only two rows of seats
deep, being constructed with logge or stalls
in the rear, to which the spectators NAV re-
tire. Thus the theatre is immensely large in
order to contain the given number of specta-
tors, which considerably smaller theatre in
America would seat. The establishment is
plain, and but for its great size would not
n hi lS14o L.
pean houses of amusement. There is a
graded scale of prices almost as vast as the
theatre itself, and all the customary petty
European practices prevail, such as selling
programmes, selling water, &C., &C., practi-
ces which competition would wipe oat in five
minutes in America. In the first place there
is the tages- -kassa and the abend-kassa: that
is the day-office and the evening-ofice for the
sale of tickets. IF you engage your seat be-
forehand during the day you must pay an
extra fee. The prices vary according to the
quality of the performance and are enumera-
ted on every handbi1l. The prices in the up
permost gallery, for instance, range from SO
pfennig for tragedy to three marks for the
greatest operas. They adjust the prices with
the greatest nicely to the quality of the per-
formance. Last night Carmen was sung as a
| strest" for the company and the top gallery
was marked only seyenty-fve pfenning The
chief Wagner operas raise the price to one
any limit to the prices in the three lower
galleries, which seem to be quite monopo-
hzed by the elite of the city. (The mark
100 pfenning-25 cents.) Not only are the
prices thus specified on the handbills, but
the hour of beginning and the hour of end
ing are also specified. These hours vary
largely. Performances never begin later
than seven o'clock, and frequently at six,
half-past or even earlier, according to the
length of the entertainment. A performance
that only lasts three hours is very Short five
hours is not long.
The little "Residenz Theatre has but two
galleries, if 1 remember Alright, and only
seats 800 spectators. Although over half a
century old, this Haf-Theatre is fitted up ad-
mirably with reference to that bugbear of
theatre-going in Europe, possible fire. Great
water pipes extend through every gallery to
the remotest corners of the house, and q
good many large streams could at once be
directed upon incipient conhagration
Moreover, members of the municipal fire de-
partment are stationed everywhere through
out the house, whose duty it is to rush to
these hydrants in case of an emergency
They may be recognized by their heavy brass
helmet hats, which are evidently very trou-
b1esome. There are telegraphic signals also
which connect the different parts of the
house with the main fire department.
There was nothing remarkable about the
performance of Carmen last night. The ia
miiar melodies were well rendered by large
competent array of singers. It is in the pro
duction of the grand operas, especially of
Wagner, that Munich exceIs The Wagner
ian Trilogy has been presented during the
last two weeks three times, including khin-
gold, the prelude. The scenery of the Vol
kers, Siegfried and Gotterdamerung is com
plicated and elaborate in the extreme The
lights are managed with the greatest care
Now the stage is pitchy dark and you can
l., III.
nately suffused with creamy white, a rosy
pink, pale green or delicate violet The
colors come and go without abrupt transit
tions. Haloes and aureoles fall Just where
they were designed to fall Never a sound,
however unified, issues from behind the
scenes while the most extensive changes are
being effected. Would that we in America
might copy some of this remarkable atten-
ton to the details of stage management.
The spectacular effects of the Trilogy have
equalled anything that I ever saw, even at
the operate festivals in Cincinnati. At
times this same stage that spirited horses
galIoped across in Carmen last night seems
to open its nav and swallow at one gulp the
immense scenic paraphernalia that is so es-
sential in these spectacular operas. A mo
ment later, notably in the act where Sieg-
fried cuts his way through fire to the sleep
ing Brunhild the smoke and flames clear
away, the clouds and shifting curtains part;
scenes Q0ScGDu I1O1Q ABOVE ana ascend
below with faultless accuracy, and you can
scarcely believe that your eyes have wit
messed such a phenomenal and noiseless
transformation The killing of the hideous
dragon, the superb funeral pageant over
Siegfried, and the appearance of the Rhine
nymphs, are all represented on the same
magnificent scale. The music of the orches-
ira is in the hands of about sixty-fve first
class musicians, while the vocal parts are
sustained by the best talent Bavaria affords
Speaking of Wagner, by the way, I passed
an imposing ivy-covered house on Brienner
Strasse the other day that bore this legend
in gilt over the European bay window in
front: ''Hier wohnte Richard Wagner 10
October, 1854 December, 1865" His mu-
sic seems to be the most popular here.
It is refreshing after you have been travel
ing for months, contemplating the art treas
ures of the old world, and contrasting them
with the poverty of America in this regard,
to visit the famous bronze foundry of Fer1i-
nand V. Miller, as l did the other day You
seem to be transported into real American
for on all sides are models of
public statues and fountains which have
been cast here for our leading Cities and you
realize that we have at least availed ourselves
of the possibilities in this one department to |
a creditable extent. First you enter an office |
and purchase ticket of inspection. Then |
you accompany a man who speaks ten or ff- |
teen words of English through the different |
The museum is a series of |
rooms containing the original models of all |
the important statues cast at the establish |
ment. Here you feel quite at home as you
survey the familiar faces on all sides. I
should judge that over half of the models
American statues. In the center
of the middle room was the colossal eques- |
trian statue of Washington, which is to be
seen at Richmond Va, and which was cast
from the model of Crawford of Rome. 1t
was erected in 1857. Grouped about the
room were also models of the six eagles, the
six statesmen and the two bas-reliefs which
adorned the pedestal upon which the main
statue rested The statesmen figures en-
braced jefferson, Mason, Lewis, Marshall,
Nelson and Henry. Near by the model,
created by Story in Rome, of the statue of
Everett, which may be seen in Boston Here
were portions of the famous Davidson foun-
tain which embe1lishes Fountain square in
Cincinnati. The main figure was in a side
building. The four juvenile figures that
adorn the base were ranged on either side of
the passage into the next room In little
hallway hung fine picture of the compile
ted fountain as it appears to-day with its en-
yirons. The guide explained glibly in Ger
man that the monument cost $50, 900, and
gave an Ineligible exposition of its good
points. notice that Mr.. Miller, the propri-
etor of the foundry (who is himself an ac-