Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-02

/ former series OF WHICH are continued aIOuuu
the corniee of the Princes gallery, may be
called decorative. By an ingenious arrange
ment ingress and egress are provided, each
two rows Of seats having a separate en-
trance.
During q performance the lights in the
! auditorium are lowered as much as possible,
and to such an extent that reference to score
or hbretto is next to impossible. Thus,
| there being no orchestra visible, and no
gaudy decoration to distract the attention,
the stage effect. be it of sight or sound, is
wondrously heightened and intensified.
WHAT THE EFFECT Is LIKE.
Indeed, looking from the center of the
auditorium upon stage setting at Wagner
Theaser is like looking from the cleaning
of some restful cavern out upon the
great glory Of the rising sun. One cannot
but think of Rembrandt effects. The very
mind and sight and all faculties of mental
and spiritual perception are focused
upon the one spot which is given
a positive radiance by contrast. The cost
of the theater was in the neighborhood
of $22s 900, and considering the difference
in labor and value of material in Germany
and America, what would equal an outlay
of $500, 900 in our country was expended
This fund was raised bv direct taxation by
| of Wagner societies, who were virtually
commanded to each contribute 1925. Only
$125, ,0G0 came this way. Then Wagner at
tempted to secure the remainder BY giving
performances of his lighter works, but only
about 500, 900 was thus secured. Finally
the late King Louis gave the remainder,
$4,000 had the good fortune to witness
the first performance of Wagner's last and
greatest work, "Parsifal, % in 1882, as we'll
as to become personally acquainted with the
composer, his wife and Able Liszt at that
time. With those engaged in various es-
sential capacities, the number of persons
actually employed to produce Wagner's
wonderful music-drama, was fully 400.
Everybody knows the history of Wagner's
obscure origin; his trifing studies; his sur
passing impudenee while yet unbearded in
proclaiming a new, and, to him, the only
correct, school of composition in lyric opera;
his revolutionary career; his eHile to Switz-
erland; his ill-success in England; his re-
buffs at Paris, despite Meyerbeer's noble aid,
repaid by the subsequent cruelest satires BY
Wagner; his literary dtetribes against all
who loved the melodies Of even so great pre-
decessors as Mozart and Beethoven; and
his general stupendous egotism, self-con-
sciousness, assertiveness, impudence, aggres-
siveness, or whatever it may be called; and
his finally winning the heart and~treasury
of the erratic King Louis of Bavaria through
the presentation Of "Der Fliegende Hollan-
DER" and his later
TRIUMPHANT KINGLY SWAY
here at Bayreuth while giving the world, or
rather his thousands of pilgrim disciples,
representations of his colossal music-dramas,
from the "Rlng of the Nibelung" in 1876, to
''Parsifsl, =" in 1882, as were never elsewhere
accorded any art creation on earth. But
everybody does not know the chief sources
of his success; nor much of his personality;
and few, it seems to me from my own oppor-
tunities for observation and analysis, have
had the cslmness and patience to give both
the composer and his extraordinary product
their just estimate.
Just two people really made Richard
Wagner immortal. One of these was the
woman whose hand 1 grasped at 'eW ahn.
fried, the same one 1 had met In 1882 at
the same place, whose lofty calm, marvel
ously winsome imperiousness and impassive-
ness. and her supreme loyalty to her hus-
band then, converted all enemies to friends,
and now whose shining faith in the dead
4sna1teF' s deihcations and her own final re-
union with him, would transform the whole
world to WsgnerIan disciples could it be
brought within her influence. That woman
was once Won Bulow's wife. Wagner and
Won Bulow were sworn friends. Wagner,
with his mighty genius for concentrating ali
human aids Upon his own resistles creative
and protective forces, saw, or felt, or be-
lieved, that this one woman was as neces-
sary as life itself to the complete develop |
ment of his purpose to create for the world
an absolutely new standard in lyric music.
To think was to act and compel according
act, with Wagner. So he ran away with
this Cosima Won Bulow, Listz's daughter;
and as soon as Won Bulow got a divorce
Wagner married her. Her children by
Won Bulow and those by Wagner were
ever, and now are, happy brood together.
These are the plain iacts. Those may dis
cuss them who wish. Whatever else it was
which Wagner would have broken and
failed beneath the remorseless storms of op-
position his own remorselessness compelled.
THE OLD GIRL HE RAN AWAY WITH.
Probably now 60 years of age, MADAM
Cosima" is head taller than was the short
and poddy Wagner. Quaint and odd in
dress, spare and gaunt in figure, the start
ling effect is heightened by the longest and |
scrawniest neck ever connecting woman's
head and frame She is as sallow as was
her venerable father. Deep but phenom-.
enally bright and piercing eyes CLEAN out
under heavy brows. Her nose is long
and hawked. Her mouth is large, |
with lips firmly set, with an expression
Of unconquerable will power; and this is
all intensified by iron-gray hair hooding
the sides of the face almost to the
chin, which is then gathered In huge knot
at the top of the head. There never lived so
lrv Il vok foeo
Listz, whose grotesqueface / have studied in
parlor and at pianos by the hours. Cosima
Wagner is his prototype in woman. 1 be-
ieve her to be what Wagner ever insisted
'he was, the most intellectual woman in Ger
many. Not this alone. Her intellectually
was even surpassed by her matchless devo-
ion. 1t did not make her his enemy. It
made her make him. No tlattery ever tempt
ID her into the weakness of vanity regarding
ler own majestic part in what the world got
rom Wagner. Hence, and because OF this
oyal abnegation only, she must ever be
Known as luminously as he who would not
lave gained immortality without lust that
power from her and just that abnegation
which devoutly holds to this hour. mo,
he world is wrong" she said. SIT was all
lis mighty genius. could help but little"
Then with great spirit, this remarkable as
ertion: ''It is the eternal principle that the
male shall create; that the female shall nur-
ure Few women ever created. They were
derelicts, wandering forces, when so striv-
ng. Had these known the master-power Of
nated genius in man, their contribution to
he worlds good would have been infinitely
reaterF
WHAT SHE GAVE TO HIM.
Cosima Wagner not only gave her own
magnificent powers to Wagner, but she
ave Listz-Listz, the petted OF kings and
rihces, the adored of all women, that great
st pianist the world ever knew. who never