The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-26

the bare existence of such a theater in such a place, and the magnetic power tt still has, after the lapse of thirty years, over the whole civilized world. are almost more wonderful than the musical dramas for whose housing 1t was Intended, And, beyond all this, there Is no doubt that q Baheuth per formance Is still something different from and In several respects better than, the best it Is possible to get any where else
 t is true that tho place Is changing slightly The houses are steadily creep ing across the fields at the foot Of tho hlll on which the theatcr stands; though It will be many years vet be- fore they reach 1t, and the fields and woods at the back arc still untouched Inside the theater--while the darken- ed auditorlum and the silence are as before--somethng Of the old atmo~ sphere of reverence is passing away. At first, as Wagner desired, no ap- plause whatever was heard, A few years ago it became the custom to applaud at the end of an opera; and now the din Is heard at the end of each act, Recently at the conclusion of The Valkvre,' one leather-lunged animal prayed his felicitations for five minutes to the disgust of everyone else, even an attempt to hiss him down did not succeed, This noise at the end of each act ls the sole blot on the theater; but for that the enchant- ment would he perfect.
 As it is, one still gets on the whole, the best of singing, emphatcally the best of orchestras and certainly perfec- ton In stage management By this mean not so much the general smoothness and orderliness of the stage settings and their eyolutions, thought that Is admira ble The lighting arrangements, for example, are mod els of their kind; sunsets and sunrlses come on SO slowly here that literally one doec not notice them. until one IS surprised to find that from being. say. quite dark five or ten minutes ago.
  But there Is another perfection of stage-craft at Baireuth than this---the incomparable harmony between the music the word the gesture, and the movement Now and then, 1t Is true, in the process of suiting the action to the word slightly mechanical effect is produced; but this Is rare. For the most part it Is eXqulsltely done: and only those who have seen 1t car realize the pleasure it gives to see the movements of the actors faithfully ac- companying and underlnng the rhythms or the melodlc contours of the music-the end of a stride. for example, coinciding precisely with the end of g phrase. and gesture rising slowly to it's climax, and then relaxing, step by step, with the soaring and fall ing of the line of theme in the orchestra
 And all through the greatest atten- ton is paid to the smallest detail of stage management The movements of the chorus of the Valkyries in the third act of The Valkyrie" were al- ways natural in themselves. and. at the same time. beautifully planned to make seres of harmonious. statu- esque groupings; and even to such a small piece of detail as the filling If the ensaved Nibelungs past Alberich, in The RhInegold" a quite unusual air of veracty was given With two slight exceptions, nothing has so far occurred 10 mar the faultless disposi- ton of tho stage settings Wotar slipped off rocky step just as he was about to call ID the fire round Brunns hide, and while Alherlch was clam herine through tho water 10 catch the Rhine maidens hc stepped on loose board that the Rhine must be paved with wood The scenery itself SO far,