Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-06-15
TEMPLE OF MUSIC
Nine. Nordica Proposes to Es.
tabliSh an American Bair-
euth on the Hudson.
BUILDINGS TO COVER ACRES
Noted Singer Has Bought 100000
Site for Rival of the Famous
Wagnerian Institution.

Nine. Lillian NOrdica will establish
On the Hudson near New York Il Bal
reuth i'll America, says the New York
Herald. With part of her great
fortune the noted singer will erect the
Lillian Nordica Festival House. which
will be to the United States what the
famous operate institution founded by
Richasl Wagner and now maintained
by his widow is To Europe. The site
for the great institution was purchased
recently 10y Nine. Nurlica foT 100000.
The opera house will lee ready Tor its
formal dedication one year from next
summer.
But the house alone where the WaG-
merriam operas are to be given. both in
German and English. is but i part of
the great musical and artiStiCally phil
anthrCpic scheme planned by Nine.
NorGica. On the twenty acre site she
has acquired the prima donna is TO
found the American Institute OF Music,
where, taught 10y thu foremost teach
ers in the world, American young won-
en- and men who aspire to win operate
hcnors will he taught every branch of
music and given Il musical education
as complete and excellent ana with
vastly less expense than they can now
hope TO get abroad. An open air the
alter will be another feature of the in
StitutiOn.
Nine. Nordica nloke in part of her
plans as follows:
Call my object philanthropic or
I. Of
ing here in my own country an Amer
lean Baireuth has been my lifeS am
bition. Now | am able financially TO
start this great project, which l know
will be an institution which after l
am dead will continue to grow and en-
tighten the people of this country. who
are now awakening to the benefits to
be derived from musical education
such as was not dreamed of ten years
ago.
Here in America young women and
men save their earnings and rush to
Europe 10 take up musical study.
Thousands go every year. Some sue
coed, others fail. This country can pro-
vide everything necessary to the stu
dents education and IS gaining Il mu-
steal standard that Europe has always
had. In this plan Of mine 1 am as
sured of the hearty cooperation of
men and women Of wealth. The latter
years of my life hope 10 Give entirely
TO seeing this great institution grow
until it can have no rival.
VIII Cover Four Acres.
ne Buildings tina will be a part
Of the American Institute of Music
alone will cover four acres. They Will
he erected close To the Lillian Nordica
Festival House. In connection with
the institute there will be Gor1nitories
and LoUscs where the students at lit
tie expense will be able to live while
pursuing their musical studies.
Europe will contribute teachers. and
they will be paid for their services
more than they can hope to earn
abroad. The scope and outline Of my
project il is impossible to give in detail
on such short notice.
THE Lillian Nordica Festival House
will be in every way an exact repro
ductiOn of the theater erected 10y
Richard Wagner The Wagner operas
will be given there in the summer,
with tine greatest artists in the world
The first year nothing but Wagner
operas Will be given, and after that
it Is proposed TO present in the open
air theater or stadium Shakespearean
cycles III which all Of the greatest
Interpreters Of Shakespearean plays
will be able to appear.
During the summer season there
will be readings. lectures and regular
courses in music and the classic drama
Sundays in the opera house will he de
voted TO oratorios and symphonies, and
the Saturday performances viii be fol
the great masses Of the people, who
are beginning to take deeper interest
in music than ever before.
1.-THE management of the institution
will be in the hands Of a board of wO
men directors and an advisory board
of men. all of whom will be selected
within six months. The seating ca
pacity of the Lillian Nordica Festiva
House will be 1000. There will bC
twenty-five boxes, all OF which will be
sold by subscription. The theater may
not be self supporting during its frs
summer, but that will not make tho
slightest difference. In years to come
it will be, for those who are to become
interested with me in the project are t
endOw it. aside from the financial aid
shall give to it.
''The grounds surrounding the differ
ent buildings will be laid ont in til,
form of huge oval. The site of the IL
stitution is easily accessible from New
York city Ivy both rail and water.
One Of the greatest pleasures l vii