shipwreck with his
opera; the latter created the Richard Wagner Verein to put the Bayreuth
enterprise on its feet.

Of the six sacred operas composed by Rubinstein three may be said to be
practicable for stage representation. They are "Die Makkabaer,"
"Sulamith" (based on Solomon's Song of Songs) and "Christus." The first
has had many performances in Germany; the second had a few performances
in Hamburg in 1883; the last, first performed as an oratorio in Berlin
in 1885, was staged in Bremen in 1895. It has had, I believe, about
fourteen representations in all. As for the other three works, "Der
Thurmbau zu Babel" (first performance in Konigsberg in 1870), "Das
verlorene Paradies" (Dusseldorf, 1875), and "Moses" (still awaiting
theatrical representation, I believe), it may be said of them that they
are hybrid creations which combine the oratorio and opera styles by
utilizing the powers of the oldtime oratorio chorus and the modern
orchestra, with the descriptive capacity of both raised to the highest
power, to illustrate an action which is beyond the capabilities of the
ordinary stage machinery. In the character of the forms employed in the
works there is no startling innovation; we meet the same alternation of
chorus, recitative, aria, and ensemble that we have known since the
oratorio style was perfected. A change, howeer, has come over the
spirit of the expression and the forms have all relaxed some of their
rigidity. In the oratorios of Handel and Haydn there are instances not
a few of musical delineation in the instrumental as well as the vocal
parts; but nothing in them can be thought of, so far at least as the
ambition of the design extends, as a companion piece to the scene in
the opera which pictures the destruction of the tower of Babel. This is
as far beyond the horizon of the fancy of the old masters as it is
beyond the instrumental forces which they controlled.

"Paradise Lost," the text paraphrased from portions of Milton's epic,
is an oratorio pure and simple. It deals with the creation of the world
according to the Mosaic (or as Huxley would have said, Miltonic) theory
and the medium of expression is an alternation of recitatives and
choruses, the latter having some dramatic life and a characteristic
accompaniment. It is wholly contemplative; there is nothing like action
in it. "The Tower of Babel" has action in the restricted sense in which
it enters into Mendelssohn's oratorios, and scenic effects whi