New-York tribune., 1918-02-03
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stage picture is nothing more than a
conventional background. Again, near
ly all modern designers agree on GER
tain principles in regard to the use of
the lights, chiefly that the footlights
should be used little or not at all and
that the illumination should in general
come visibly from one direction and
fuse as q part of the pictorial design.
(Mr. Urban's lighting in Saint Eliza
beth" affords a striking instance of
these principles.)
On other technical points regarding
color and design there is q pretty we'll
established entente but above these
basic agreements there is an endless
variety of difference in method and in
tent. People speak loosely Of the
"Bakst Craig Reinhardt chool" of
scene designing, One might as we'll
speak Of the Shaw -Maeterlnck- Bern
hardi school Of literature. Mr.. Urban
IS but one among scores of able ar
lists of the stage. His work speaks
eloquently for the new tendencies.
But it by no means says the last word.
What About the Freak?
1t is understood, of course, that
settings in the new style are condi-
toned also by all the practical needs
OF the operatic stage, that they must
provide the necessary entrances and
exits, lend themselves to the available
lighting equipment and be capable Of
being set and "struck" within a rea-
sonable space of tire. Meeting these
requirements is as much the business
of the new scene designer as the crea-
ton OF pictorial beauty. And able de-
slgners are capable Of meeting all such
requirements. The impression that the
new stagecraft" does not meet the
practical demands of tho stage is sheer
nonsense. The only basis for the myth
is that modern designers sometimes
demand rearrangements and innova-
tons in technical equipment that
shock the pedestrians Of the old school.
Similarly, the notion that the "new
stagecraft' is gallery of freaks need
not not detan the busy reader. Freaks
there are in all "movements" and
many radical experiments besides
which are perfectly sound, but in ad-
vance of the current taste. But there
IS no more reason for bracketins Mr..
Urban with the freaks than there is
tor bracketing Walt Whitman with ali
the petty apostles of modern qers
hbre. Nor need we go on to quote the
cease" which the apclogist for the new
would make out against the old
fashioned scenery at the Metropoli-
tan, to rail with him at the gaudy mo-
notony Of the "Toscc" scenes, to snort
over the pasteboard camels of "Ma-
rouf' or to damn to the artists in
ferno the man who commits the false
perspective Of MARTHA" These scenes.
now that Mr. Urbar's work is at last
on view, may be left to speak for
themselves.
We need only add this word of en-
couragement to those who find they
like the new scenery in opera: The
supply of beautiful stage pictures for
the Metropolitan will not be limited
for lack of capable artists. Mr. Urban.
as we have said, is but one of a good
ly number. Though he is in some
things supreme among American
artists of the stage, though he pos
sesses an amazing technical fertility,
an astonishing range of professional
knowledge, an apparently inexhaust-
lble fund of artistic concepts, he rep
resents but one of the modern tenden-
cles. There are not a few American
artists, trained and experienced, men
who have lived through their appren-
ticeship and achieved their artistic
stature. who can meet the artistic and
technical requirements Of the Metro.
politan whenever the call may go forth
little critical common sense will be
adequate to exclude the freaks.
HIRAM KELLY MODERWELL.
We do not know how far back Mr.
Moderwell's knowledge Of what has
been done on the operatic stage ex-
tends, nor the precise period when
some Of the things which he treats as
innovations had their beginning.
Speaking generally as to his major pre-
mise that the stage pictures should
before all else be asthctically beauti-
full, it would take an exceedingly long
memory to compass the time covered
by that proposition. The pantomime or
ballet d'dction which Apuleius saw in
Alexandria in the second century. and
of which he has left vivid description
in "The Golden ASS" not only indicates
that the scenes pictured were beauti-
full, but that they also blended a mimi
cry of nature with an idealization of it
(Which we imagine is, after all, only
what the new stagecraft" is ATTEMPT
ing) in most amazingly successful
i'ie'iAe'. Even tlie appear 10 tne nose
recently exploited at the stupendously
artistic Greenwich Village Theatre was
made at that Alexandrine representa-
ton of beauty, the race for the apple
OF Paris. Even the disrobing contest
now actively in progress between Ger
aldine Farrar, Mary Garden and Rosa
kalsa at our operas seems to have been
feature Of that show. AS for opera
in its early days, not only in Italy but
IN France and Germany, it employed
some of the finest artistic talent Of the
age and. as compared with the expcn-
diture i'll stage dress at Versailles and
even III some OF the court theatres of
'he petty prlnclpalities of Germany,