Omaha daily bee., 1891-12-06

OAAAh Nb"' bBDD
long since we had seen such multitudes of
excited and struggling people. II took a
good half hour to pack them and pair them
into the train-and it was the longest train
we have yet seen in Europe. Nuremberg
had Deen witnessing this sort Of experience
a couple of times a day for about two weeks.
1t gives one an impressive sense OF the mag
nitude OF this biennial pilgrimage. For a
pilgrimage is what it is. The devotees come
from tho very On DIS of the earth to worship
their prophet in h Is own Kaaba in his W
Mecca.
II you are living in New York or san
Francisco or Omaha or anywhere else in
America, and you conclude, by the middle OF
May. that you would like to attend the Bay
reuth opera two months aud a half later, you
must use the cable and get about IL immed-
lately, or you will got no seats, and you must
cable for lodgings, too. Then IL you are
lucky you will get seats in the last row and
lodgings in the fringe of the town. If you
stop to write you will get nothing. Tnere
were plenty of people in Nuremberg when
we passed through who had come on pilgrim
age without first securing seats and lodg-
ings. They were found neither in Bayreuth;
they had walked Bayreuth streets a while in
sorrow, then gone to Nuremberg and ound
neither beds or standing room, aud had
walked those quaint streets all night waiting
for the hotels to open and empty their guests
into the trains, and so make room tor these,
their defeated brethren and sisters in the
faith. They had endured from thirty to
forty hours railroading on the continent OF
E~urope-with all which that inn
plies of worry, fatigue and fnan-
cial impoverishment and all they
had got and all they were to get for it was
hardness and accuracy in kicking them
selves, acquired by practice in the back
streets of the two towns when other people
were in bed for back they must go over that
unspeakable journey with their pious mission
unfulflled. These Inundated outcasts had
the frowsy and unhrushed and apologize
look OF wet cats, and their eyes were glazed
with drowsiness, their bodies were adroop
from crown to sole, and all kind hearted peo-
pie refrained from asking them if they had
been to Bayreuth and failed to connect, as
knowing they would lie.
We reached here (Bayreuth) about mid
afternoon of a rainy Saturday. We were Of
the wise, and had secured lodgings aud opera
soats months in advance.
l am not a musical critic, and di6 not come
here to write essays about the operas and de-
liver Judgment upon their merits. The little
children of Bayreuth could do that with q
finer sympathy and a broader intelligence
than /. l only care to bring four or five pill
grims to the operas, pilgrims able TO appre-
ciate them and enjoy them. What l might
write about the performances to put in my
odd time would be offered to the public as
merely a cats view of a king, and not Of
didaetic value.
Next day, which was Sunday, we left for
the opera house-thati is to say, the Wagner
temple-a little after the middle of the after
noon. The great building stands all by itself,
grand and lovely, on high ground outside the
town. We were warned that IL we arrived
after 4 O'Clock we should be obliged to pay
$3.50 apiece extra by way of fine. We
saved that; and it may be remarked here
that this is the only opportunity Europe
offers of saving money. There was o big
crowd in the grounds about the building, and
the ladies' dresses took the sun with fine
effect. l do not mean to intimate that the
ladies were in full dress, for that was not so.
The dresses were pretty, but neither sex was
in evening dress.
The interior of the building Is simple-se-
verely so; but there is no occasion Tor color
and decoration, since the people sit in the
dark. The auditorium has the shape of a
keystone, with the stage at the narrow end.
There Is an aisle on each side, INT no aisle in
the body of the house. Each row of seats eX-
tends in an unbroken curve from one side of
the house to the other. There are seven on
trance doors on each side Of the theater and
four at the but end-eighteen doors to admit
and emit l $50 persons. The number of the
particular door by which you are to enter the
house or leave il is printed on yourticket, and
you can use no door but that one. Thus,
crowding and confusion are impossible. Not
SO many as 100 people use any one door. This
is better than having the usual (anu u~soless)
elaborate and tireproor arrangements. 1t is
the model theater of the world. 1t can be
empJied while the second hand of a watch
makes its circuit. 1t would be entirely safe,
even If 1t were built of lucifer matches.
II your seat Is near the center of Il row and
you enter late, you must work your way
along u rank OF about twenty-five ladies and
gentlemen to get TO it. Yet this causes no
trouble, for everybody stands up until all the
seats are full, and the filling is accomplished
and you have a solid mass of 1900 heads
making u steep cellar-door slant from the
rear OF tho house down to the stage.
All the lights were turned low, so low that
the congregation sat In a deep and solemn
gloom. The ~funereal r~ustling of dresses and
the low buzz of conversation began to die
swiftly down, and presently not the ghost Of
a sound was left. This profound and increas-
luRly Impressive SLlllleSS continued YET DUR
ing some time-the best preparations for
music, spectacle, or speech conceivable. |
should think our show people would have in
vented or imported that simple ana Impress
i've device for securing and solidifying the
attention OF an audience long ago; instead of
which they CONTINUE to this day to open a
performance against a deadly competition in
the form OF noise, confusion, ana q scattered
interest.
Finally. out of darkness and distance and
mystery soft rich notes rose upon tho still
ness, and from his grave the dead magician
began 10 weave his spells about his disciples
and steep their souls In his ench antments.
There was something strangely impressive in
tho fancy which kept intruding itself that
the composer was conscious in his grave of
what was going on here, and that these divine
sounds were the clothing of thoughts which
were at this moment passing through his
brain, not recognized and familiar ones
which had issued FROM it at some former
time.
The entire overture, long as it was, was
played to dark house with the curtnin down.
1t was exc uisite, it was delicious. But
straightway thereafter, of course, came the
singing, and it does seem to me that nothin <
can make q Wagner opera absolutely perfect
and satisfactory to the untutored but to leave
out the vocal parts. | wish | could see a
Wagner opera done in p%antomime once. Then
ono would have the lovely orchcstration I'M
vexed TO listen to and bathe his spirit In, and
the bewilderingly beautiful scenery to intoxi-
cate his eyes with, and the dumb acting
couldn't mar these Dloasures. becauso thara