NOs Te. 
a 
GRAND OPERA. 
Boston Opera House Very Active in 
Preparation for Coming 
Season. 
A giant cyclorama several thou- 
sand feet in length is about to be 
installed on the stage of the Boston 
Opera House, and the work together 
with the preparation of the scenery 
and properties for three operas to be 
heard in Boston for the first time 
makes the Boston Opera House at 
present a beehive of activity. These 
operas are ‘Samson et Delilah’ ‘The 
Blue Forest’ and ‘Pelleas et Meli- 
sande’ and all the mechanical de- 
partments are feverishly busy trying 
to get everything in readiness for 
the opening of the season on No- 
vember 27th. 
The work is progressing under the 
direct supervision of William R. 
Macdonald, the business manager of 
the Boston Opera Company, who de- 
clares th ¢ the coming productions 
will be vu a seale that will necessi- 
tate the employment of one of the 
largest forces of workingmen ever 
used on any stage. 
‘‘Before I sail for Europe on the 
first of August, to complete there 
several arrangements and to get into 
closer touca with the people who 
supply us with part of our equip- 
ment, | expect to see the work on 
the various productions so well un- 
der way that on Mr. Menotti’s ar- 
rival at the end of August, we will 
be able to begin light and scenic re- 
hearsals,’’ says Mr. 
*““The scenery for ‘Samson et De- 
lilah’ is nearly ready and the work 
on the ‘Blue Forest’ has already 
been begun. While the scenery for 
‘Pelleas et Melisande’ is to come 
from abroad, all the properties. and 
mechanical arrangements are to be 
constructed in our shops. Some of 
the mechanical devices necessitated 
by such productions as ‘Samson et 
Delilah’ will tax to the utmost the 
ingenuity of our master-mechanics ; 
but with the facilities we have and 
with the appliances that we are con- 
stantly adding to our equipment we 
have no doubt that we will overcome 
all the difficulties. 
**Tt is not usually known that the 
actual painting of the scenery for an 
opera, not counting the time 
necessary for making preliminarv 
sketches and the construction of 
models, takes from six to ten weeks, 
end that in order to keen up with 
the demands created by the constant 
additions to the repertoire, the 
Boston Opera House is compelled to 
keep up the year ’round two scenic 
studios, one in the theatre proper, 
Macdonald. . 
SHORE 
the other at Swampscott, and it is 
not an unusual occurence to have 
the scenery of various acts of an 
opera painted at different studios. 
Of course in the distribution of this 
work we are governed by the partic- 
ular talents of our scenic painters. 
‘*When it is known that with the 
exception of sky-borders, the first 
regulations of the City of Boston do 
not permit the keeping of any scen- 
ery in the theatre, it will be readily 
understood that scenery must be 
painted long before the initial per- 
formance of an opera, for it must be 
properly adjusted, the men must 
thoroughly learn the handling of it 
and become familiarized with the 
different parts if a performance is 
to have the desired effect. 
“In connection with the scenery, I 
would like to mention that we are 
installing a giant cyclorama, which 
necessitated the ordering of many 
thousand of yards of special canvas 
that is exclusively manufactured in 
Italy. The cyclorama is expected to 
be of great aid in producing a com- 
plete scenic picture. As an illus- 
tration of the care and work neces- 
sary in equipping the stage of the 
Boston Opera House with all the 
necessary implements, I may say 
that it took more than six months to 
secure the canvas from Italy and 
that if it were not for this lapse of 
time such a ecyclorama would have 
been installed last year. 
‘‘The so-called property depart- 
ment, which supplies the stage with 
all the embellishments that help to 
transport the hearer into the period 
in which the action of the opera 
takes place, faces an exceptionally 
busy time. There is ‘Samson et 
Delilah,’ an opera which ealls for 
biblical accoutrements; there is 
‘Pelleas et Melisande’ with its me- 
diaeval surroundings and the ‘Blue 
Forest,’ the action of which has no 
historical period, and which conse- 
quently makes enormous demands 
upon the imagination of the man 
in charge of the properties. Were 
the three operas I mention the only 
ones to be put on this vear. the 
property department would have 
auite a hard task before it; and it 
will be doubly so in view of the fact 
that these are not to be the onlv 
novelties. Small wonder then that 
we are seriously considering the ne- 
eessity of a double shift in our 
working rooms in order to meet the 
demands that we are facing. 
“This is equally trne of the ear- 
penter department, the department 
that deals with the purely mechan- 
ical side of the stage. While we do 
not contemplate any radica] changes 
B-REEZE | 99 
in the stage proper, we are installing 
new motors to facilitate the work of 
the various traps and are making ex- 
periments with the traps themselves. 
However, we have already reached 
the point where we are ready to de- 
clare with confidence that the scene 
of ‘Samson et Delilah’ depicting the 
fall of the temple, will be the most 
realistic ever seen anywhere and this 
in spite of the fact that we do not 
intend to resort to the methods of 
the European manager who ordered 
bags of dirt and dust to be carted to 
the theatre at the beginning of the 
performance and had it placed on 
top of the temple columns. 
‘“We are boasting, and this with- 
out any exaggeration, of possessing 
the best electrical plant in operation 
in any opera house in the world; 
still we do not rest content and our 
electricians are very busy trying out 
new appliances for creating novel 
light effects. The moment the eur- 
tain goes up on an initial perform- 
ance, the routine work takes all the 
time and all these preliminaries have 
to be attended to in the summer 
months. 
‘“While the opea house is a castle 
of silence to passers by, it resembles 
inside a beehive, and even this si- 
lence is soon to be shattered—for in 
about three weeks the American see- 
tion of the chorus is to begin re- 
hearsals, the ballet dancers are to 
start in Jearning new terpsichorean 
evolutions and tne time is drawing 
near when the orchestra will set out 
to learn the new scores. 
‘‘No stone is being left unturned 
to make the purely mechanical side 
of the operas the most brilliant 
achievement of modern stage-craft, 
and Mr. Russell, who is busily en- 
gaged abroad in putting the com- 
pany into shape, is in constant touch 
with the work at the opera house 
eabling directions and suggestions. 
““That the public realizes the ex- 
traordinary efforts put forth in 
making the Boston Opera House an 
artistic success is shown by the very 
gratifying subseription, which, des- 
pite the hot weather keeps on econ- 
stantly growing; so that from what- 
ever point of view the coming sea- 
son is to be judged, the results 
achieved promise to make a_ red- 
letter epoch in the history of opera 
in Boston.”’ 
Tomorrow you have no business 
with. You steal if vou touch tomor- 
row. It is God’s. Every day has in 
it enough to keep anv man oeenpied 
without concerning himself with the 
things beyond. 
Henry Ward Beecher. 
