The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-05-21
BY w. J. HENDERSON.

open Tor SUne tint dnd the do
'ngs have ranged in Importance all the
way from the singing of the prologue
10 "Pagliacci' to the first festival pro-
auction OF the Alpine symphony of
Richard Strauss. Presently wagner,s
"Siegfried' is to be performed in a
place sacred to Yale athletics. and 1t
Will be similarly presented in Chicago.
There liz to he an open air PERFORM
ance of aida" The writer confesses
to q shamcfaced wish To lie there.
Somehow there was always something
about the grand cutrcc" in the old
fashioned circus that stirred his pulses.
and IL the return OF the triumphant
Rh0dd mes in an opcn air aida" does
not become a ~ublimated grand
entrec' with trumpet trimmings what
will II be?
And We are going 70 have come out.
door exercises of our own right here
In this overgrown village. Something
will I've said further on about Percy
Mackayc's masque. for which Arthur
Farwoil has composed elaborate music.
and music lovers can also sit up and
wait for the great open air perform
ance Of Ncrdis Manzuni requiem at
the Polo Grounds on June T.
Let us seize the opportunity To i'm
prove the mind with a little history.
There is nothing AZ al. now about open
air performances. theatrical or musical
or both. And VIVA, is more. they have
been given In y theatre beside which
the Yale Bowl or the Polo Grounds
would he found insignificant The
Fraternity Of the G%onfalunc. founded
in 1864. used to enact the Passion Of
Christ in the Coliseum. and in l5i9
Pope Paul III. discovered that his
tendc sens.hllities were wounded by
the portrayal, of the supreme event of
Christianity in the place made ac-
cursed by the memory Of Nero and the
hungry Lions. H. forbade further rep
rcscntatons in that arena.
In the fourteenth century the pas
ION play had become 50 much of a
fixture that there was a company de-
voted to its presentation. 1t was called
the confrgternity Of the Passion and
II first r.ses TO the surface of history
near the close Of the Ccntur, when 1t
assisted at the festivities attendant on
the we'd ling of Charles VI. and Isa-
bella ut Bivlria.
THIS play proceeded into the open
and va. performed 'on the road" ia
various parts II France. II was a
considerable drama too. inasmuch as
Il tool several days tn finish II. an
there were eisht,-sevcn people in the
cast. Tho machinery WAS very
elaborate. as vas the Case with all the
sacScd iramas w TO the period of
their decline in ,sr seventeenth on
sltyt Tltrn uraS n1.nft- ~ music, TIL.
stage directions i~mmediatel. after the
baptist read thus:
"IIcrc Jesus comes out Of the River
jordan and throws himself upoO HIS
knees all naked before Paradise. Then
God, the Father, speaks. and TIE Holy
Ghost desCends in the form Of n white
dove upon the head of Jesus and then
returns into Paradise. And note that
the words OF God the Father lie very
audibly pronounced and well sounded
N three voices. that IN to say. Il
treble = Counter treble and a counter
bass, AL in tune
This is only one passage Of many
which prove that music played an inn
rortan, part in this drama. N2~ari
thought that the first open air plays
took place in Florence. He tells us
that in 1904 a play was given on thu
Arno, that a machine representing he'll
wa fixed upon boats and that the
subject of the drama was the peren-
nlally popular tale of Dives AMI
Lazarus.
The later cred dramas were
hahItudlly performed in the great
squares Of cities, and IL we are "a ac-
oept the accounts which have come
down would exceed ours in the
splendor u extent of their scenic at
tire. Doubtless We are superior to the
ancicnts q realism. but they GER
tainlA had the advantage Of us in
ina ginat!on.
The performance Of the Verdi re-
ouiem, however, will have no s~pectacu-
lar accessories. The composition is
suited only to concert presentation
Just what artistic results will be OBJ
tainod by such a performance remain
to be seen. The conservative music
lover does not look with delight upon
schemes If this t,pc for the good
reason that they make their appeal
chiefly through features which promise
more astouislmcnt than emotional
qualification. However. Louis koem-
inenich, who is TO conduct the requiem,
"A declared that the Polo Grounds
lends itself ma gninCently TO a presen-
,ation of his kind 'and II Is to be
hoped that this sort OF entertainment
viii become part Of the routine OF the
,!ty's musical life"
This production, at ny rate, will be
on the largest scale ever attempted in
connection with this composition.
There will be 200 voices in the chorus.
gathered from organizations in this
city and neighboring New Jersey. The
orchestra will number 100, with the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
forming an integral part. At the mi
tial performance If the work, at ST.
Marks Church, in Milan, in 1874. which
Verdi conducted, an orchestra Of 100
and a chorus Of $50 participated. At
the Royal Albert Hal performance Of
the work in London the following year
the chorus numbered 800 ana the or
chestra $50. Tho number of partici.
pants in n few subsequent PERFORM
ancoS of tie work has equnllcd AMI
slightly exceeded the latter enlistment,
but never approached, ever remotely.
the size Of the force that IL to inter
pref tn" work here on June 4.
\ stage greater in dimensions than
any hitherto constructed for the per-
formanCe of a choral work will be re-
quiI"d for In" Polo Grounds perform
EI a