THE THEATRE.
OrEN-ara performances of plays, pageants and operas, however alluring in theory, are generally unsatisfactory in practice. But the performance of Gluck's delicious opera in a grassy space beneath oaks and cedars close to Warwick Castle was one of those events which falsify the ready generalizations of the cynic. Its appeal was so delightful to ear, eye and mind as to make it worth revisiting two or three times.
Let me confess at once that I am not as a rule one of Mr.
Louis N. Parker's admirers, and that it is with the gulp of one swallowing prejudice that I hereby lay my homage at his feet. There was something a little distressing to many of us about the frenzied local patriotism of the original pageant-makers. The nature of the " books " employed was such as made a good many of us feel that here was a typical fuss about nothing. The historical incidents were rarely understood or seen in any per- spective ; the verse or dialogue was always almost indifferent ; the historical costume often inaccurate and badly put on. But after seeing this version of Orpheus I feel that I and my fellow- carpers ought to have borne all this with more patience, for it really seems as though the pageants were trial essays in a delightful, and to us of this generation a new, art form ; for all the trouble and pother which it, like its fellow-pageants un- doubtedly caused, was in the case of Orpheus most eminently worth while. Here was no affair of a questionable patriotism, but the task of bringing an ennobling work of art before an enormous number of people.
Of course, there were minor faults in the performance: Orpheus sometimes sang out of tune. Eurydice was strangely badly served by her dressers. In the matter of colour effects, though much that was delightful was produced, certain obvious and elementary mistakes were made. Here and there, too, the acting lacked dramatic verve. But these were small faults.
The very large scale of the performance proved in itself to be
delightful. If I could witness one part of the performance only again I think I should choose the first act. The processions of mourning villagers, to the number of two or three hundred, who came to lay their offerings on the little central altar, winding through the trees from several directions, were astonishingly effective, and the impressive beauty of the music of the choruses, pierced through by Orpheus's reiterated agonized cry of " Eurydice," was one of the most exquisite things that I have ever heard. When I had a little recovered I looked round at my neighbours, and observed with satisfaction that their quiet had implied just what I thought, and that there was not a dry eye.
One had feared that the music would be dissipated out of doors, but the wooden crescent-shaped stand in which we spectators were collected, combined with the background of trees, seemed to concentrate the sound, while at the same time giving it an ethereal purity of tone not heard in the theatre.
All through the performance one source of constant visual delight was the fact that from one quarter crowds and processions entering appeared over the brow of a little hill, and from another from between a pair of very fine trees. The ingenuity with which Mr. Parker varied these exits and entrances, set the silent characters in ingenious groups in the foreground, distance or middle-distance, almost gave this feature the character of a new art. Very clever, too, was the management of the swirling movements of the Shades in the infernal regions, though here two rather obvious improvements could have been made—first, to confine the colour of the most ingenious cowled dresses to the fine purples, blacks, greys and oranges of which there were examples, and, second, to employ some simple smoke- producing device. Blazing torches, which were wielded by the demon-spirits and which were composed of yellow and orange streamers were, however, extraordinarily convincing and effective.
I confess that I was slightly dreading the dances of the happy
spirits in the Elysian fields, but a really remarkable " beauty chorus " and some pleasant arrangements of really gay flower garlands and wreaths gave the scene a delicious pastoral effect, though here, as-in the first scene, there was one point open to criticism. With such large numbers a good many rather plain and rather elderly people necessarily took part, largely, no doubt, because they had good voices, but it was a mistake to dress these good singers in the same flower wreaths, tunics and sandals as the innumerable charming children, engaging young women and handsome young men whom the locality appears to afford. I wish the contriver and dressers had taken a leaf out of the book of The Beggar's Opera, and seen what effective use in the cause of beauty can be made of what would at first sight seem to be ugliness. In dress, as in most other human affairs, there is everything to be gained by facing facts and making the best of them. Grey hairs and rotund figures are in themselves pleasant and are only a blot when unacknowledged.
Though I have seen no official announcement, I hear there is talk of a repetition of the opera, and if such a repetition there is to be may I assure any reader of the Spectator who has it in his power to witness Orpheus that its beauty will more than repay the trouble of going to Warwick.
I wonder if the taking part in so beautiful a production will have a marked effect upon the minds of the three or four hundred people directly or indirectly engaged upon it ? At any rate, the Mayor and Mayoress of Warwick, who have led their towns- people in the enterprise, are to be congratulated upon their civilized and delightful interpretation of their civic function.
TARN..
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