page_title: The Miracle (1912 film)
section_title: Performances
hierarchical_section_title: The Miracle (1912 film) / Performances of The Miracle / UK / Performances
caption_attribution_description: English: Publicity material for the 1912 film 'The Miracle' by Joseph Menchen
context_page_description: The Miracle, is a British silent full-colour film, using a hand-coloured process similar to Pathéchrome. Produced by Joseph Menchen and directed by Michel Carré, it is among the very first full-colour feature films to be made. It stars Maria Carmi, Ernst Matray, Florence Winston and Douglas Payne, and was filmed on location in Austria.
  The Miracle was not intended to be shown as an ordinary film in the usual way, but was designed by Menchen to be shown as part of a 'Lyricscope play'. This was an unusual spectacular theatrical presentation which – in its most elaborate and complete expression – included: the projected colour film; a full-sized symphony orchestra and chorus performing Engelbert Humperdinck's score; live sound effects such as church bells and crowd noises; stage sets around the projection screen which changed during the performance; and live actors and dancers in medieval costume. The various component parts of this ideal production varied somewhat according to local conditions.
context_section_description: The world première of the 'Lyricscope play' of The Miracle in full colour took place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21 December 1912, exactly a year after Max Reinhardt's theatrical spectacle opened at Olympia. The 75-strong orchestra was conducted by Friedrich Schirmer, who had conducted the orchestra at Olympia and later revised Humperdinck's score for the 1924 stage production at the Century Theatre in New York. The chorus of 60 was conducted by Edmund van der Straeten, who had also been the chorus-master at Olympia.
  The Miracle ran for several weeks at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden showing three times daily (3, 6.30 and 9pm) with chorus and orchestra of 200 performers, for as little as sixpence (2½p). Towards the end of its run, the reported number of performers had grown to 200.
  The innovative daylight projection screen used throughout the run at the Royal Opera House was sold by the Universal Screen and Equipment Co. of 226, Piccadilly. Although it was the first time a film had been shown at Covent Garden, the Berlin Royal Opera had already been incorporating films into productions of Wagner operas to show otherwise impossible scenic effects.
  The colour film transferred to the brand-new Picture House at no. 165, Oxford Street, London, from Friday 24 January. Before the public opening, Menchen put on a special benefit performance of The Miracle on 22 January 1913, the anniversary of the Battle of Rorke's Drift. He donated the proceeds to the fund for a memorial to a London cabby, Private Frederick Hitch, VC, who fought at Rorke's Drift and died on 6 January.
  
  A report of a later performance outside London describes the general effect in the auditorium:
  The scenery was specially built to represent the exterior of an old cathedral at Perchtoldsdorf, so ingeniously contrived that when the great doors are opened the audience see the whole enactment of the play as if it was being carried on in the cathedral itself. The aspect of the screen as one ordinarily sees it has been entirely done away with. [i.e. the screen was surrounded with scenery, like a stage play.]  
  The black-and-white version of The Miracle was advertised by Menchen (acting as his own UK distributor), as a 'Synescope Play' which played in smaller auditoriums with reduced forces. 
  The Miracle attracted large audiences wherever it played, breaking attendance records at Kings's Hall, Leyton (2,000 seats), King's Hall, Lewisham (2,000 seats), Curzon Hall, Birmingham (3,000 seats), Royal Electric Theatre, Coventry and the Popular Picture Palace, Gravesend As many as 150,000 people witnessed The Miracle during a three-week run at Liverpool Olympia (3,750 seats).
caption: Trade press advertisement for The Miracle, March 1913
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