New-York tribune., 1918-01-04
By Grenville Vernon


ought TO be; art is one--or will be.
Painting, sculpture, music, poetry will,
IN the future, rush together in one su-
preme embrace. Down will so boun-
daries. forms, traditions. Then will
come the apotheosis of sensation. the
ego. the cosmos, the transccndental en-
ioyment of all for one and one for all.
So, if the mystic wedding OF the arts
so beautifully dreamed by Richard
Wagner is to be desired, and desired it
apparently is by all save a few very
old or very young reactionaries, 1T is
surely also desirable to merge within
one another the different forms of the
same art. In literature we already
have the union. though not the mar
riage, of prose with poetry begetting
its multitudinous progeny OF vers libre.
Why in music should we fail to have
the moribund form of oratorio. not
married perhaps, but galvanized into
new life by q metamorphosis into
opera? Democracy is this side of the
grave the Great Leveller: 1t is jeal-
this side of art? Its great virtue. and
its great need, is to be vital. The touch
stone of vitality is the applause OF the
many. Opera receives this applause;
oratorio, unless it is an annual "Mes-
aiah," no longer receives it. So let us
revivify oratorio by lending it scenery,
costumes and stage pictures. In the
name Of art, in the name of the public,
all now is permissibie-even camou-
fage
SO it came to pass that last night
an audience at the Metropolitan Opera
House came to listen to Franz Liszt's
oratorio, Saint Elizabeth" done into
operate form. 1t must be stated at
the outset that the metamorphosis was
accomplished with sincerity Of belief,
with reverence and with much real
beaut. What success was attained
is due, first. to Miss Easton for
the heroine, and, second. to Mr.. Urban
ard MIR. Oldynsky for their stage pict-
ures and to Mr. Whftehll and to Nine.
Matzenauer for their admirable imper-
sonations. All these artists believed in
what they were doing, and belief can
conquer mountains4even the mountain
of public Indifference
! Whether this conquest has been
I achieved succeeding audiences will de-
termine: If it is achieved great in
! deed will be the triumph; it will have
all dramatic action, lacking in music
suited for dramatic effect. 1t will have
been achieved possibly against even
! the wishes of its cOmpOScr-whO, how
ever, being dead, will be inarticulate.
Saint Elizabeth" has been presented
before in operate form, though not III
America New York audiences know 1t
as an oratorio from numerous perform
ances, the last by the Schola Cantorum,
considered one of the most successful
of Liszts works, though it possessed
much beautiful music, and the surprise
which greeted its announcement on the
prospectus of the Metropolitan Opera
Company was genuine and understard-
able, The reasons for its presentation
have never really been made clear. 1t
was not that there was at hand an
excellent English translation, for 1t
was originally announced to be sung
in German Perhaps it was that a sud
den religious wave had struck the
opera-things almost as strange have
happened.
After the long calendar of delectable
sinners, after Violetta, and Mimi, and
Manon. and That's, the calendar of the
saints adds piquancy. Perhaps it was
simply that Mr. Bodanzky and Mr.
Catti- -Casazza believed in the work and
loved it. Whatever may have been the
reason. it tells q moving and beautI'
full story
The legend of St. Elizabeth is {
familiar one-at least, to Roman Cath
olics. St Elizabeth. the daughter OF
King Andreas II of Hungary, was borr
in 1907; at four years of oge she was
brought to the Wartburg as the atfi
anced bride of Ludwig, son Of the
Landgrave Herman of Thuringia. Here
the two children were carefully ant
religiously brought up as brother an(
wife. Wondrous stories are told of th'
manner in which, by dcvoting herscl:
to the poor and practising extreme
: austerities, she exercised all the Chris
, tian virtues
: On becoming a widow, in 1927, she
with her four children, was driven ou
from the Wartbnrg by her mother-in
law and compelled to resign the re
:, eoncy After long and cruel wander
ings in the neighborhood, taking rel
i, uge among the poorest of her depend
ents, she retired poverty stricken tt
Bamberg, in order to be near he
u.clc, the bishop of the town. On
being at length reinstated as Land
g gxavine. she rerounced her rights II
. . fyvor of her son Herman II. She die'
in 1921, and was canonizcd at Marpurg
by command of Pope Gregory lA' Il
1885.
r The libretto, ty Otto Roquette, owe
v it's immediate inspiration to MORT
Won Schwind's frescoes at the Wart
4 burg of "Scenes From the Life of st
f Elizabeth" 1t is divided into si
0 scenes, which are identical in subjcc
e and order with Won Schwnd's pictures
T each being complete in itself.
r Scene ! depicts tho arrival of Eliza
e beth, with ner escort Of Hungarian
= magnatcs, at the Wartburg and tn
c iov with which she is received.
Between the first and second scene
t several years sre supposed to hav
e elapsed, in the course of which the be
k trothal Of Ludwig and Elizabeth ha
t been followed by their marriage, an
l. Ludwig, by the death of his father, ha
succeeded to the throne. During on
of his campaigns in Italy a famin
RACES in Thuringia; Elizabeth impov
crishcs herself by relieving the poor
Such conduct enrages her mother-in
law. who never seems to have approve
her piety and deeds of charity, an
Ludwig is induced to impose bound
upon her Nberality.
Scene 2 opens with the unexpecte
. return of Ludwig, who suddenly come
} upon Elizabeth, unattended and at