The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-02-06
THE PASSION PLAY AT oBER-AMMER


1t is nearly ten years since the Passion
Play was last produced at Ober-A
gau, and the pious peasants are prepar-
ing once more to perform the sacred
mystery-this time with more scenic
splendor than ever before. For two cen
turtles and half they have produced
this play every ten years, in obedience
to the vow made when the plague had
smitten their little village among the
Bavarian hills; and since this century
began the fame of their performance has
been steadily spreading. Many changes
have passed over Bavaria since the last
Passion Play; the romantic and impul-
sive King will never again give largesse
to the artistic interpreters of the sacred
drama; and Frederick the Good, who
was a spectator at Ober. Ammergau in
1880, has been called away to the silent
majority. But the players have changed
scarcely at all. Life flows on smoothly
in the peaceful village among the rocks
and forests, and wood carving in not
nervous or exhausting as a profession.
Joseph Meyer, who sustained the great
roll of Christ in the play in 1870 and
1880, will appear once more in the same
personality. He has aged but little, in
appearance alone, and his voice is as
mellow and penetrating as of old. The
personages of John, Peter, Caiaphas Ia
grand role) and Plate will be played by
the same actors as in 1880, but there Is
to be a new Judas, which those who are
familiar with previous Passion Plays
may find little disturbing. The Judas
of 1880 was an actor of great dramatic
force, and there are few scenes on the
secular stage more striking than his i'm
peIsonation of remorse, after the fatal
BETRAYAL Johann ZGenk is the name
of the new Judas. Johann Diemer, also
new appearance, will play King Herod;
and the characters of Mary, the mother
of Christ, Mary Magdalen, and Martha,
will be taken by debutanteS, if such a
term may be applied to people who APP
proach their art as priest approaches
the altar.
The performances will begin during
the week before Easter, and will be con.
tined for long time. A new stage and
new audience halls have been built; new
properties and new scenery have been
procured at great expenses, and the
hotel keepers of Munich have spied out
the finest sites in the Ober-Ammergau
district, and capped them with excellent
hotels. The medieval flavor of the play
will probably be less strong than it was
ten years ago; but the mystery is GER
tain to be, as it has always been, a Won
derfully moving and pathetic perform
ance, which leaves an extraordinary i'm
preston of reality upon the memory.
The orchestral part of this singular
performance, which '-as always good,
has been greatly improved. 1t is easy
to understand that the peasants, who
Tehearse from time to time every year,
should remain perfect in their parts, but
the orchestra, brought together from
distance, finds frequent rehearsals more
difficult. But it has labored vigorously
since the beginning of this year, ard
means to surprise all music lovers by Its
Improvement over the performance of
1880.
People who intend to see the Passion
Play this year should address the Burgo-
master, Ober Ammergau, at once on the
subject Of lodgings and tickets. All
wise people will go early into the neigh
borhood, rent lodgings in some of the
outlaying villages, and ride or walk into
ODER Ammergau daily to the perform
ances, Thus they will escape crowding
and will not have their aesthetic sense
distubed by seeing Judas presiding at
his own table, or Mary hurrying the
chorus girls to wash up the dinner
di hes, go they can be ready when the
cannon fires for the performance.