ge as _Ortrud_, perhaps, and see these supercilious real actresses
come filing out dressed as court beauties, cynically watching your
attempt at acting.

Actors have their proper range of parts, called _Fach_ in Germany, and
special designations like the singers. The chief of them are the
_Jugendlicher Held_ or Young Hero, corresponding to the Heroic Tenor,
and his partner the _Erste Heldin_. Nearly as important, however, are
the _Erster Liebhaber_, or Young Lover, and the _Jugendliche Liebhaberin
und Erste Salondame_--Young Lovehaveress and First Drawingroom Lady.
There are the _Helden Vater_ and _Heldin Mutter_, the _Intrigant_ or
Villain, and the _Bon Vivant_ (pronounced Bong Vivong) who is a sort of
general good fellow and occasional hero. The _Erster Komiker_ is always
a popular figure with the public and has his subordinate funnyman,
usually much younger. There is a soubrette to do the saucy maid parts,
a _Naive_, what we should call Ingenue, and a _Komische Alte_, or funny
old woman; several "drawingroom ladies" and "gentlemen" and minor
"_Chargen Spieler_" or character actors. The small parts are usually
filled by chorus men and women, and the opera soubrette or the operetta
tenor, have to double and do the cheeky maids or giggly school girls and
giddy young officers in the plays. Many of the minor actors were, or
were assumed to be, sufficiently musical to take small parts in operas
requiring a large cast, appearing as _Telramund's_ four nobles, and as
_Meister_ in the first act of "Meistersingers" or as competitors in the
_Preissingen_ in "Tannhaeuser." The opera gains very much by having these
experienced actors in the small roles.

Our chorus was composed of about thirty members, and the orchestra of
from forty to fifty, reinforced in the brass and wind instruments from
the local military bands. Three Kapellmeisters held sway over them: the
First Kapellmeister an autocrat with arbitrary power who directed the
important operas, the second who lead the old stagers like "Martha" and
"Trovatore" and the operettas, and the third who was usually a volunteer
learning his profession, and who acted as repetiteur for the soloists
and directed pantomimes, the songs in the farces, and "Haensel und
Gretel" once a year if he was good. He was always on duty during
performances to direct any music behind the scenes. In good theatres
there are several of these young men, as in "Rheingold" for example each
Rhine daughter oug