ris. He confesses that he was
curious to know what the Frenchman would do with a work the stage
production of which would "provoke a thousand frights." He himself was
unwilling to stir up such a tempest in Germany; instead, he put his
sketches aside and used some of their material in his "Parsifal."

Wagner ignored the religious, or, let us say, the ecclesiastical, point
of view entirely in "Jesus of Nazareth." His hero was to have been, as
I have described him elsewhere, [Footnote: "A Book of Operas," p. 288.]
"a human philosopher who preached the saving grace of Love and sought
to redeem his time and people from the domination of conventional
law--the offspring of selfishness. His philosophy was socialism imbued
by love." Rubinstein proceeded along the lines of history, or orthodox
belief, as unreservedly in his "Christus" as he had done in his
"Moses." The work may be said to have brought his creative activities
to a close, although two compositions (a set of six pianoforte pieces
and an orchestral suite) appear in his list of numbered works after the
sacred opera. He died on November 20, 1894, without having seen a stage
representation of it. Nor did he live to see a public theatrical
performance of his "Moses," though he was privileged to witness a
private performance arranged at the German National Theatre in Prague
so that he might form an opinion of its effectiveness. The public has
never been permitted to learn anything about the impression which the
work made.

On May 25, 1895, a series of representations of "Christus" was begun in
Bremen, largely through the instrumentality of Professor Bulthaupt, a
potent and pervasive personage in the old Hanseatic town. He was not
only a poet and the author of the book of this opera and of some of
Bruch's works, but also a painter, and his mural decorations in the
Bremen Chamber of Commerce are proudly displayed by the citizens of the
town. It was under the supervision of the painter-poet that the Bremen
representations were given and, unless I am mistaken, he painted the
scenery or much of it. One of the provisions of the performances was
that applause was prohibited out of reverence for the sacred character
of the scenes, which were as frankly set forth as at Oberammergau. The
contents of the tragedy in some scenes and an epilogue briefly outlined
are these: The first scene shows the temptation of Christ in the
wilderness, where the devil "shewed unto him all the kingdo