Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1889-11-02

OOWA dDoVo tuo upper Ba1IoIy suuStJ, uas
not line of gilt or bright color. The SOM
ber columns at either side simply represent
hewn stone In gray aud white. There is abb
solutely no decoration in the Richard Wagner
theater. unless the grouping of gas jets,
gracefully hung from the caps of the col
umns and like sprays along the mid height of
The columns, the former series of whicn are
continued around the cornice of the Princes
gallery, may be called decorative. By an
Ingenious arrangement ingress and egress are
provided, each two rows of seats having
separate entrance.
During a perfo1 nance the lights in the
auditorium are lowered as much es possible,
and to such an extent that reference to score
or Hbretto is next to impossible. Thus,
there being no orchestra visible, and no gau-
dy decoration to distract the attention, the
stage effect, be it Of sight or sound, is won-
drorsly heightened and intensified. Indeed,
looking from the center of the auditorium
upon stage setting at Wagaer's theater is
like looking from the cleaning of some rest
full cavern cut upon the great glory of the
rising sun. One cannot but think of REM
brant effects. The very mind and sight and
all faculties of mental and spiritual percep.
ton are focused upon the one az ot which is
given positive radiance by coptre7t. The
cost OF the theater wss in the neigbborhood
of two hundred and twenty-five thorsand
dollars, and considering the difference in Ia
bor and value of materiel in Germany and
America, what would equal an outlay of five
hundred thousand dollars in our countrv was
expended. This fund WIZ rs'7ed by direct
tsxation by Wagner upon one thorsand pa
tronats, or members OF Wagner rocieties,
who were virtually commanded to each con-
| tribute two hundred and twenty five dollars.
| Only one hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars came this way. Then Wagner at
tempted to secure the remainder by giving
performances of his lighter works, but only
| about twenty Thousand dollars wr3 thus Sc
| cured. Finally the late King Louis gave the
| remainder, eighty thousand dollars. had
| the good fortune to witness the irst pe1for-
nance of Wagner's last and k.eatest work,
| "Parsifal, }" in 1882, es well as to become
personally acquainted with the composer,
his wife and Abbe Listz at that time. This
gave me an opportunity to know how large a
| number of persons were necessary in the
production OF the wonderful music.d-ams.
It clearly shows how impossible Of populer
rendition are Wagner's strange creations.
There were: General managers, Feustel
Muneker, Gross and Heckel; conductors,
Levy and Fischer; choral directors and con-
ductor's assistants, Humperdiok, Porges,
Kpiese, Frank, Stieh, Thoms, Merz, Eiche
aud Hausberg; scenic artists and costumers
Carl Brandt (who died in December. 1881
his son Fritz Brandt, Bruekner, Fricke, Jou.
kowsky, Messrs. Plettungs, Schwab and Nc
litz, these only including the heads of corps
solo artists, Pa. sifaI, Winklenann, Gudehul
and Jaker; Kundry, Materna, Brandt and
Malten; Gul lemanz, Scaria and Siehr; Am
fort: ,, Psichmann; Klingsor, Hill anG
Fuchs; Titurel, Kindermann; the Knight
Keil, Galfy, Mikery and Won Hubpenet
flower girl soloists; Audre, Belec, Pringle
Meta, Galiy and eorson; flower girl ohorus,
twenty four voice; the massed chorus, met
zo.eopranos, twelve; teuols, twelve; basJos
twenty; barytones, eighteen; besides sepa
rate chores of toy's voices for cathedral aad
Distant effects numbering fifty, bringing tn
grand total, with the orchestra, which has
one hundred and four performers, up to tw'
hundred and eighty-seven persons. With
those engaged in various other essential ca
pacitics, the number of persons actual'y en-
ployed ives fully four hundred.
Everybody knows the history of Wagner
obscure origin; his trifing studies; his sur
passing impudepce while yet unbearded ii
prcelaiming a new, aud, to him, the onl.
correct. school OF composition in lyric ope
ra; his revolutionary career; his exile t
'Switzerland his ill-suecess in England; hi
rebuffs at Paris, despite Myerbeer's nebl
ED, repaid by the subsequent cruelest satire
by Wagner; his literary diatribes against al
who loved the melodies of even so great pre-
deccssor5 - Mozart and Beethoven; and hi
general stupendous egotism, self conscious
ner7, asse1tiveness, impudence, aggressive
ness, or whatever it may be called; and hi
finally winning the heart and treasury of tn
erratie King Louis of Bavaria through th
presentation of "Der Fliegende Ho1lander,
and his later triumphant kingly sway here .
Bayreuth while giving the world, or rathe
his thousands of pilgrim disciples, represer
tations Of his colossal music .dramas, fror
the "Ring of the Nibelung" in 1876, to "Pal
sifal," in 1882, ss were never eisowhere &C
| corded any art creation on earth. But every
, body does not know the chief sources of hi
J success; nor much of his personality; an
few, it seems to me from my own opportuni
: ties for observation and analysis, have ha
: tho ealmnesa and patience to give both th
composer and his extraordinary product the
, just estimate.
Just two people really made Richard Wal
ner immortal. One Of these was the woma
, whose hand grasped at "Wahnfried," tt
same one had met in 1889 at the SAN
l place, whose lofty calm, marvelously win
i some imperiousness and impassIveness, an
: her supreme loyalty to her husband thel
q | converted all enemies to friends, and no
4 whose shining faith in the dead "master'
4 deifcation, and her own final reunion wit
him, would transform the whole world
= WaRnerian disciples could it be brougl
within her influence. That woman was on
!. Won BuloW's wife, wagner ana Won bulo
q were sworn friends. Wagner with his mig
/ ty genius for concentrating all human ait
4 upon his own resistless creative and proje
: tive forces, saw or felt, or believed, that th
& one woman was as necessary as life itself
? the complete development of his purpose
q create for the world an absolutely new stan
i ard in lyric music. To think was to act al
4 compel according act, with Wagner. So
= ran away with this Cosima Won Bulo
d Listz's daughter; and as soon as Won Bule
E got a divorce Wagner married her. d
i. children by Won Bulow and those by Wsgn
/. were ever, and now are, q happy brood
i gethsr. There are the plain facts. Tho
n may discuss them who wish. Whatever 81
Il it was, it was union of genius and fore
q without which Wagner would have brok
- : and failed beneath the remorseless storms
= opposition his own remerselessness co.
fe PEELED.
a Probably now sixty years of age, "Madal
a. Cosima" is head taller than was the shs
a and poddy Wagner. Quaint and odd
ve dress, spare and gaunt in figure, the sta
to ling effect il heightened by the longest q
It screwniest neck ever connecting wona
il. head and frame. She is as sallow as was
ID venerable father. Deep but phenemina
le bright and piercing eyes glsan cut un'