The Indianapolis journal., 1902-01-19
GREEK DRAMA REVIVED
EURIPIDEs's IPHIG.ENEIA" PRE-
sENTED AT ATHENS THIS SEASON.
Performances Not of Strict Antigua
rian Accuracy-AccOmpa
ment of FOIk-SOngs.
Daniel Quinn writes from Athens TO the
New York Evening Post:

New L Ork ENenlng Post:
The opportunity of seeing a classic play
Is no longer rare at athens. In 1896
called into existence a society whose sole
aim Is TO rehabiltate the ancient drama
and to render it familiar TO the Athenians
OF to-day The founders of the society are
Professors Mistriotes and Antoniades. DR..
Mark Sigalas the only teacher of elocution
In all Greece trains the amateur actors.
These amateurs are university students
mostly. Miss Apostolou, who for the last
three years has taken part, is a graduate
of the Arsakelon, a girls academy. After
having appeared former occasions
Elektra and as Iokaste, she now represents
the priestly heroine in Euripidess Tauric
"Iphigeneia," the play which the society
has selected for this year. Three perform
ances have already been given, and three
more are arranged for. The last of these
will take place in springtime, so as to
profit by the presence of the tourists VINO
always visit Athens al that season. The
following notes and reflections were occa-
stoned by the performances Of Nov.
and If:
II the reasons for reproducing an ancient
Greek play be purely and exclusively an
tiquarian, then much can be said against
the performances given at Athens. AdVo-
Gates of strictly antiquarian accuracy con-
tend that a modern reproduction of such a
play should be, as far as possible, merely
repetition of the original performance, with
all its conventional setting, ana even Win
the imperfections of the stage and drama or
those days. From an artistic point or view
such initiative performances might De quite
u.
present resources and desires of Mlstrlotes
and his philo-cassic associates. The So
ciety, either Intentionally or by happy tate,
pursues a method which shows that It's
ideal of a perfect representation of an old
play would be such as is best consistent
with the play itself considered as pro-
duction of literary art.
According to this view it is not necessary
to introduce cothurns and masks so as
| to conform to the stage customs OF the
| days of Euripides, but it is absolutely
| necessary to represent the characters OF
| the drama in a manner as true as pos
! sble 10 their office and actions as pre-
| sented in the text 1t would pe Dettel 70
| dress Iphigeneia and the other person
! ages in accordance with the practice or
| the Mycenaean age than to drape them in
| robes similar to those which they wore
| when this play was first produced. In other
! words. the society, in reproducing tnese
| classic dramas, follows the rules laid down
| for the presentation of any other drama
| But their success in detail is not as praise
worthy as is their unconscious principle.
For an antiquarian representation
theater built in conformity with Dorpfeld's-
| doctrine of theatrical structures would be
most suitable; and Greks who sigh for
| such representations should hope for the
generosity of some rich benefactor furnish
| ing the necessary funds for the restoration
| of the ruined theater Of Dionysus on the
| south slope of the Acropolis. But for
artistic representations, the ordinary mod
| ern theaters of to-day not unsuitable,
seeing that by rich scenery and more per-
feet machinery the setting can be made
much more correct and more attractive
TO us at least, than was possible in the
days of Euripides. 1t should not however,
be demanded that the setting be entirely
consistent with the text and with historic
accuracy. There must always be more or
less of a compromise between the re-
QuirementS of the drama and actual truth
1t is on the ordinary stage OF the Demo-
| tic theater here that the "Iphigeneia' Is
being performed. Only one scene is re-
| quired, for the entire action takes place
before the temple of Artemis on the shore
OF the EuXine. This temple, which occu-
pies the rear corner of the right side OF
| the stage, is a Doric structure of the late
pattern, in no way recalling the Mycenaean
| period of architecture. The spaces be-
tween the triglyphS were left open so as to
account for Ores tess remark that Pylades
| and he might stealthily enter the temple
| through these windOw-like apertures. Close
/ to the temple is blood-besprinkled altar.
where the human victims used 10 be
rifced to Artemis Back of the temple are
| cliffs leading down TO the sea.
From the beginning to the end of the play
the actors enunciated their lines in a vio-
lent, grandiose style not easily avoided
| in a language in which emphasis and tone
are less necessary than in uninhected Ian
guages, and in which the value of each
word is apt to be sufficiently evident simply
| from it's position in the sentence. The actor
who speaks Greek lines, not being obliged.
by certain conventional colorings, to make
the meaning clear and to show the gram
matical construction of the words, is en-
tirely free TO use or misuse his voice in
intoning or almost chanting his phrases as
Italian orators often do. or In pOmpOus
defamation Correct eIocution when 1t is
question of a Greek speaking to Greeks, is
quite different from what this same high
art is when applied to the English Ian
guage. Unfortunately, the modern Greeks
have no practical way OF enunciating with
accuracy the mellifUous meters of the
cient verses They cannot adopt our sys-
TEN of indicating the poetic feet by using
accents for that purpose, because, in order
not TO make hopeless tumble of their Ian
guage they have TO allow the accents 10
remain undisturbed on the accented sylla-
bles, regardless of the meter; and to indi-
cate the poetic measures solely by the
proper observance OF long and short sylla-
bles is practically even more impossible to
a Greek than il is to II may be that the
Greeks are logical enough in sacrificing
meter to accent but their logic is not ap-
parent at glance to foreigners.
In order to render the choric odes proper
" the society annually offers a small none
tary reward and heaps OF verbal honors to
the composer of the most suitable music
for them. The condition imposed upon con-
testants is that they respect the ancient
prosody and that their compositions be
either original or adaptations of the melo-
dies of the traditional songs of the modern
Greek people The music which won the
prize for the chOric songs OF the 'Iphi-
geneia'' was written by a native of Con-
stantinople, DR.. PachtikOs. He has travelled
much through Greek countries. collecting
remnants of folk songs, and declares that
this popular music has preserved the an
cient scales, and that by studying ii we
may greatly improve our knowledge of the
ancient modes. 1t was on these native mel
OdieS and the canons of Byzantine
church song that he based his music for the
"Iphigeneia." He arranged it for three sets
OF voices. asserting that. even If harmony
was unknown to the ancient composers, ii
ought nevertheless to be now admitted into
the music of these odes. But the rules of
harmony which he applies are those of
Byzantine music, which are not precisely
at one with those known and accepted in
ordinary European musical science.
The singing was performed by a chorus
of girls from the Arsakeion Academy. They
had been trained to sing their parts with
sufficient accuracy; but the grand spectac-
ular movements, the entrance march. the
steps and evolutions and gestures which
were so closely in harmony with the voice
I'm the execution of such odes. and which
assisted so powerfully in showing the