lent actor for "old men" and character " villains." When art and literature. His Lorbeerbaum and Bettelstab His Sir Peter Teazle was a splendid performance, CARL VON HOLTEI. He Carl von Holtei, who was almost a contemporary of Ludwig Devrient, and who, as actor, author, and reader, excited no little enthusiasm throughout Germany, is another of those geniuses who have done so much good toward the culture of German MADAME BIRCH-PFEIFFER. Another extraordinary actress, or rather authoress and actress, was Madame Birch-Pfeiffer, the prolific playwright. This lady, whose maiden name was Birch, and who married Dr. Pfeiffer, wrote more than one hundred plays, and provided the German stage with constant novelties. Since the days of Kotzebue, Germany had not possessed a dramatist of so much freshness, vigor, and naturalness. Kotzebue, however, never repeated himself, and of his two hundred and odd plays every one had an original plot, while the dramatic productions of Madame Birch-Pfeiffer were mostly adaptations, of which about twenty were thoroughly successful and remained as stock plays. She was the best Nurse in Romeo and Juliet on the German stage. Lina Fahr, who acted Juliet, was the perfection of an Italian maiden, and Shakspeare himself would have doted on her. She had raven black hair and jet-black eyes, with a transparent white skin, and a tall, lovely figure. From the moment she entered you could read in her brow that Fate had doomed Juliet to a tragic end. CARL GRUNNERT. The last but not the least of the "old guard was Dr. Carl Grunnert, of the Hof-theater at Stuttgart-a most profound scholar and rhetorician, whose learning the faculty of Göttingen had honored with the diploma of a doctorate of Philosophy. Dr. Grunnert was a perfect elocutionist. He was considered unsurpassed in his recital of the "Lay of the Bell." He never yielded to effect. He regarded the public as an ignorant mass which needed education. His Mephistopheles came the nearest to Goethe's ideal, but was the feeblest with regard to dramatic effect. He was the embodiment of Faust's negative spirit, and the scholar could trace in every line the evil "no" to Faust's "yes." This was the Mephistopheles of Goethe, not of the stage; it was 'thinking aloud." While Faust was raving and ranting you could see his evil genius in the shape of Mephistopheles whispering tempting words of dissipation, but always in that suggestive sly manner which wins upon our better nature, and to which we yield with repugnance. LIVING ACTORS. The following is a partial list of well known members of the theatrical profession of Germany to-day : Friedrich Haase, Ludwig Barnay, Franziska Ellmenreich, Herr Sonnenthal, Frau Wolter, Herr Richter, Theodor Liedtke, Marie Barkany, Herr Ruethling, Josef Lewinsky, Frau Seebach, Mme. Janauschek, C. G. Berndal, Minona Frieb-Blumauer, Pauline Conrad, D. E. Bandmann, W. Hellmuth Braem, Julie Abich, Ernst Krause, Maximilian Ludwig, Theodor Lebrun (Director of the "WallnerThater," Berlin), Emil Hahn (Director of the Victoria Theater, Berlin), Carl Helmerding, Theodor Lobe, Karl Koberstein, Leopold Teller, Frederich Mitterwurzer, Carl Porth, Dr. Hugo Müller, Eleonore Wahlmann-Willführ, Friedrich Holthaus, Carl Häusser, Siegwart Friedmann, Oswald Haucke, Ernst Possart (Director of the Court Theater, Munich), Gustav Moltke, Ferdinand Lang, Wilhelm von Hoxar, Bernhard Baumeister, Friederike Grossmann, August Neumann, Philomene Hartl Mitius, Carl Sontag, and Amelie Schönchen. in Fra Diavolo, and Margherita in Faust. In 1871, while her fame was at its zenith in England, she suddenly broke her engagement with the late Mr. Gye, and started to Germany to nurse her husband, Baron von Rahden, who had been wounded in the war between France and Germany. During the following eleven years she appeared with great success in nearly every large city of the Continent, and made a tour of the United States, where she met with a most enthusiastic reception. In 1882, she reappeared at the Royal Italian Opera of London in the title rôle of Carmen, acting there throughout the season. Her voice possesses magnetic notes that never fail to electrify an audience. THEATERS OF GERMANY. The theaters in Germany are divided into three classes the Hof, or Court theaters; the Stadt, or city theaters; and the theaters which are maintained by private support. The "Hof " theaters are under the management of a director appointed by the ruler, and are owned as well as controlled by the government. Almost every German State has a Court theater. Prussia heads the list with five-the Opera House, and Schauspielhaus (play-house), in Berlin, while the other three are in Hanover, Cassel, and Wiesbaden. Bavaria comes next, there being three Court theaters in Munich, which is due to the King being an enthusiastic supporter of the Opera and Drama. Baden has three Court theaters, namely, at Carlsruhe, Mannheim, and Baden-Baden. The principal "Stadt" theaters are at Hamburg, Leipzic, Cologne, and Bremen, being owned by the city, and managed by a director appointed by the local authorities. Among the best known theaters managed as private institutions are the Stadt Theater in Vienna, the Residenz Theater in Berlin, and the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. Since the time of Lessing it has been looked upon as an honor to become a director of the stage by members of the literary profession. Franz von Dingelstedt is director of the Hofburg Theater in Vienna, while Heinrich Laube is director of the Stadt Theater in the same city. Hans von Wohlzogen manages the Court Theater in Schwerin, and Gustav zu Putlitz the Court Theater in Carlsruhe. Among other wellknown directors of theaters are Botho von Huelfen, Director of the Court theaters, Berlin; Ferdinand von Strantz, Director of the Royal Opera House, Berlin; Feodor von Wehl, Director of the "Hof THE MEININGEN COMPANY. The company of the Court Theater at Saxe-Meiningen has acquired a remarkable and peculiar reputation in Germany. This is due not merely to the excellence of the performance in their own theater, but to those which they have given in Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and other cities. It is a common custom in Germany for single actors to be invited to join companies for a few weeks, when they are called "guests," in order that they may play the parts in which they have acquired the greatest distinction at home. In the case of the Meiningen Theater, however, it is not a single actor who makes these friendly expeditions to other places, but the entire company, so that "Die Meiningen "have come to be spoken of collectively, as a body of persons governed by a particular system, and animated by a common purpose. In fact, so far at the earliest opportunity possible. Until recently they had never played out of Germany. When the present Grand Duke succeeded his father in 1866 he found a company at the Hof Theater neither better nor worse than in other German towns of the same importance, It was, as is customary, a double company, giving operas and plays on alternate evenings. The Duke, however, actuated by a laudable desire of doing one thing well, soon made up his mind to abandon operas, and to devote his energies to the representation of plays as completely as the resources and limits of the stage would allow. The condition of the German theater, so he thought, was not satisfactory. Modern pieces, such as the translations of popular French novelties, light comedies, and farces, might be put on the boards as well as they deserve to be; but the higher forms of the modern drama, the classical masterpieces of Germany, and the plays of Shakspeare, which as is well known, the Germans have adopted and made their own, were performed in a very slovenly fashion. It needed a very critical eye to perceive this. Men who have had the good fortune to see Faust or Hamlet at one of the great German theaters have rejoiced that there was still a stage on which poetical plays could be represented with respect to the author's own intention, without curtailment from deference to the habits of the audience or some stupid tradition of the stage, and, as it appeared to them, with far greater attention to details and to the adequate presentation of minor characters than is possible in America. The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, however, thought otherwise. It appeared to him that, while one or two parts were intrusted to actors of talent, the rest HERR BARNAY IN JULIUS CESAR. as we are able to judge, their visits to German towns are regarded, both by themselves and others, as missionary enterprises, the object of which is the improvement of the stage. Reformers, especially those who wear their badges openly on their sleeves, are usually regarded with suspicion, if not with dislike. The Meiningens, on the contrary, have become extraordinarily popular. Wherever they go, the theater is crowded, not once merely, but night after night, so long as they can be prevailed upon to stay; and they are usually pressed to repeat their visit were neglected; that the scenery was too often inappropriate; and that the costumes and accessories lacked historical accuracy. He made it his task to place the best dramatic works, nay, the dramatic masterpieces of the whole modern world, in a masterly manner on the stage, shrinking from no labor in now assiduously searching for an exact historical costume with the minutest details, now in designing himself some adequate scenery or in personally superintending almost every rehearsal, after having in many cases previously gone through the parts with the actors privately. The company, including some of the greatest actors of the German Empire, such as Herr Barnay for instance, embraces in all a total exceeding eighty persons, in addition to the supernumeraries, whose wonderful drilling has earned for the manager an unrivaled Continental reputation. The Meiningen Company, thus composed, admits of even the most unimportant parts being enacted by artists of the first rank, imparting to each representation a finish and perfection of style otherwise unattainable. THE RING THEATER. The Ring Theater of Vienna had earned the reputation of being unlucky, even before its destruction, December 9, 1881, when over Soo persons lost 800 their lives. The fire was caused by the gas which lighted the sky-borders. A workman, instead of lowering, hoisted the border higher, and the flame. at once began to spread. The theater was originally built by Herr Forster, and opened under the name of the "Komische Oper," or Opera Comique, January 15, 1874, when The Barber of Seville was performed with Minnie Hauk in the leading rôle. The architecture of the exterior was half Renaissance and half Italian, the façade being very handsome. It had three comparatively narrow entrances. It was first used for the production of light pieces and comic opera, and later was let out to traveling companies and stars. For some time previous to the fire it was under the management of Herr Janner, who changed its name to that of the Ring Theater, and made it a success. Signor Arditi was the conductor for two years, and Patti, Nilsson, Minnie Hauk, and other operatic celebrities, have been heard there in nearly all the standard grand operas. It was at this theater, in 1874, that Minnie Hauk succeeded in getting up a benefit for the sufferers by the Chicago fire, netting a handsome sum. Rossi, Salvini, and many of the great German actors, have also played there. Sarah Bernhardt closed a very successful engagement only a month before the theater was destroyed. The piece which was being played at the time of the fire was the last comic opera written by Offenbach, entitled Les Contes d'Hoffmann. THE WAGNER THEATER, The Wagner Theater at Bayreuth stands on a slight eminence, about a mile from the center of the town. Nothing could be more simple or unpretentious than the exterior, which is of red brick and pale brown sandstone, with the woodwork of the frame showing. The building is for use, not for ornament, and while it is perfectly quiet and harmonious, and utterly unobjectionable, there is nothing about it impressive except its great size. Even this loses much of its effect, for the theater stands quite alone, out in the country, and there are no other buildings near by with which to compare it. The interior is as unpretentious as the outside. Large columns run along the sides, and at the back are the boxes. Over the boxes is a narrow gallery, but there are no projecting galleries as in ordinary theaters, and no proscenium boxes. The coloring is the quietest of grays. The first thing that strikes one about the auditorium is the steep pitch of the floor, which is steeper even than that of the old Bowery Theater, now the Thalia, in New York. This enables the spectator to see over the heads of the people in front of him, so that there is really not one bad seat in the house of the whole 1,800, of which 1,350 are on the floor. The most striking of Wagner's peculiar inventions, if one may call them so, is the sunken orchestra. Just before the first row of seats rises a curtain screen about three feet high-just high enough not to interfere with the view of the stage. Between this and the stage is the famous "mystic abyss," where Wagner places his invisible orchestra. It is a chasm 17 feet deep, 18 feet wide, with a further width of 10 feet under the stage, which forms a projecting roof over part of it, and it extends entirely across the house. The conductor sits in the middle of this, immediately under the curved screen and high up, invisible to the audience, but with a full view of the stage and having his band beneath him, entirely under his control. All around the front of the stage is a sort of cloth hood, about four feet wide, which seems to shut the orchestra in still further and to drown the sound still more. The device is a very admirable one, for it enables the spectator to have a clear and unobstructed view of every part of the stage, it keeps his attention from being distracted by the motions of the men in playing, and, chief of all, it lessens the intensity of the sound without muffling it or rendering it indistinct. This is a most important consideration with such sonorous instrumentation as Wagner's and with so large an orchestra as he employed at the representation of the Ring des Nibelungen, in 1876, and of his last opera, Parsifal, in the summer of 1882. Without some such device as this the voices of the singers would inevitably have been drowned. THE PERFORMERS OF PARSIFAL. No less than three ladies appeared in the character of the mysterious half-woman, half-demon Kundry, during the Bayreuth representations of Parsifal. Frau Friedrich Materna, and Fräulein Mari Anna Brandt at first acted the part alternately, and later, There were also three Parsifals-Herr Winkelmann, Herr Gudehus, and Herr Jaeger, the two former being new to the Bayreuth representations. Neither of the débutants was great; nor did Herr Jaeger repeat his previous success as Siegfried. Herr Scaria and Herr Siehr, who had already appeared in the Nibelungen tetralogy, were the veteran Gurnermanz, the first Knight of the Grail. The performance of the former actor, although over-vigorous, was on the whole the more natural and unstrained. Herr Reichmann was the long-suffering King Amfortas and Herren Fuchs, Hill, and Kindermann were in the remaining secondary characters. |