The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1907-03-15
.eleyatings hours Of my life.
The Charm Of the Place.


elevating hours Of my life.
The Charm Of the Place. s,.5
$N There is, as I have intimated be-
fore, peculiar beauty about the Bay
reuth performances not attained any
where else, although the singing and
playing may be quite as good, some
times -even better, elsewhere.
Now what makes the pleasure Of
listening. to Wagner's work in Bay
reuth such an exquisite and unique
joy7 I would say that it was, primar-
lily, the genius loci, the atmosphere.
the almost tangible dramatic and mus
zeal spirit which pervades stage, Or
chestra, auditorium and which touches
from old Hellas itself. .<. ...s
The people who go to Bayreuth
are, on the whole, lovers of Wagner's
art; they know what they hear, more
or less, and watch for quality rather
than quantity. They have, moreover,
paid for their being there dearly-a
matter of no small account to the
German of the good middle class and
they, therefore, wish to reap the
fruits of their material sacrifice in
peace. Noises, and if they should be
as caressing> ones as the rustling of
a silk waist, or the goin up and down
of a FAM, are hissed down energetic
eally from the moment that darkness
colt lac Tho 1,n,c, ,,>1 Il,o Gr,I 10
of the prelude is heard from the mys-
tic gulf. Late-comcrs, so fashionable
in American theatres, are an unheard
of quantity i'll Bayreuth, for the
doors arc closed upon them without
mercy, and no mercy or position will
help them to an untimely entrance.
Owing to Wagncr's wise planning
Of the auditorium there is no seat
from which you could not see or hear
perfectly, and the seats are large
enough, too, to allow of a breathing
space between the separate human
bodies. This is great boon, for if
anything is distracting to lover Of
music, whose every nerve tingles with
the sound and harmony of the tone
world around him it is the physical
contact with a nci@hbor whose frame
is of the sound-tight kind, and acts
~ an isolator to the current of music
in ones self. The absolute darkness
in the house, setting in just before
the first sound is heard, greatly helps
one to attain the abandonment of
soul which is SO necessary for the
true enjoyment Of art. In it the
separate individual souls can forget
their petty fragmentary existence
more easily, and can expand and lift
themselves to the universal spirit, to
God, who for so many German minds
reveals Himself in art and, primar-
lily, in music, this most unfathomable,
most immaterial, most inward Of all
arts.
When the Curtain Rises.
When the curtain rises = and. the
plastic and dramatic arts work in har-
mony with music our inspiration talk
es concrete form as it were, "We at
tain," as Nietzsche says, "the, sub
limest heights Of emotion and, having
reached these, we find ourselves in
the realm of freedom, unfethered by
nature. From here, in immense mir
ages, we view ourselves and our striv-
ing, victorious, perishing kind as
something sieninfcant and sublime;
we take delight in the rythm of pas
sion and in the sacrifice of it; we
hear, at the hero's every gigantic
stride, the hollow echo Of death and
in it's presence realize (9) the high
est charm of life. Thus ourselves
changed into tragic characters we re-
turn to life in strangely comforted
mood, with a new sense of safety, as
if out of the greatest dangers, ex-