Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/231

* THEATRE. 187 THEATRE. house there are from one to four balconies, which follow the curve of the horseshoe ; in some of the opera houses one or two of these balconies are divided into boxes, each containing four or more seats. The stage, which in houses intended for opera or spectacular pieces is as large as the auditorium, consists of the stage proper, a floor with an upward incline from the footlights to the rear wall of the theatre of about half an inch to the foot; and on either side of the stage and at the rear, there are spaces for the proper manipu- lation of scenery and for dressing-rooms. Above the stage are tlie flies, where hang the pieces of scenery to be lowered into place by ropes, and below it corresponding depths into which the scenery may be dropped. Gas, which replaced candles for lighting purposes in Europe in 1823 and in this country about 1830, has within the last few years given place to electric lights, mak- ing possible better eftects of lighting, and doing away with much heat and foul air. One or two men now control from a table at the side of the stage the whole lighting of the house, raising or lowering the lights in any part of it at will. Lights are used upon the stage as footlights, in the flies at the top, and in the wings at the side. Calcium lights are used where great bril- liancy is desired. Scene-painters and stage car- penters now succeed in doing with ease what would have been considered impossibilities fifty years ago. Moving scenery running upon vertical rollers at either side of the stage makes possible the illu- sion of horse-racing, while chariot races, railroad trains, and steamboats in motion are represented with much skill. The effect of lightning is pro- duced b}' burning lycopodiuni powder or by elec- tric sparks; the sound of wind by a metal cyl- inder revolving against a piece of cloth or wood, the sound of rain by shaking peas in a pan, of thunder by the rolling of cannon balls, of church chimes by bars of steel, and the illusion of snow by small pieces of paper dropped through coarse sieves. The magic lantern is also successfully used. In the theatre which Richard Wagner built at Bayreulh it is used to portray cloud effects, the ride of the Valkyrs who fly through the air, etc. At the Dresden Opera House, long famous for its scenic devices, the remarkable use of the magic lantern was first made in The Rat Catcher of Hamchi to simulate the army of rats that came at the call of the' Pied Piper and drowned themselves in the river Weser. Steam clouds were first used at Bayreuth to hide the stage from the spectators while the scenery was changed so as not to inter- rupt the poem by dropping the curtain. Wag- ner also used curtains of gauze with similar ef- fects. The stage itself is now made in movable sections, which allow scenery to be raised from below as well as lowered from above. Twenty years ago a double stage was constructed at the Madison Square Tlieatre, New York, a small house with insuflicient stage room for the manipu- lation of scenery: while the performance is going on upon one stage, the scene-shifters and decora- tors may work upon the other, which when the curtains falls is lowered or raised into place for the next act. Another innovation first tried at this house was to place the musicians above the proscenium arch instead of in front of the foot- lights; the object was to save space for seats. As a protection against fire spreading from stage to auditorium or vice versa, an asbestos curtain Vol. XIX.— 13. or one of sheet iron in sections is now used iu many theatres. The prices for theatre seats in England in Shakespeare's time varied from one penny to one shilling. In the early American theatres the prices were high — from three shillings for gallery seats to six shillings for seats in the boxes. Prices fell after the Revolution to 25 cents for gallery seats and $1 for box seats. This remained about the scale of prices until after the Civil War, when there was a steady increase. In 1870 first- class theatres in New York charged $1.50 for orchestra seats and from 35 cents to 50 cents for the top gallery. About 1886 a few New York theatres began charging $2 for the best seats in the orchestra and the first row in the first bal- cony, and gradually all first-class theatres made $2 the price of orchestra seats, with $1.50 and $1 for the balconies, and 50 cents for the gallery. For operatic performances $2 and $2.50 were the prices for orchestra seats in the New York Acad- emy of Music until 1878, when the price was ad- vanced by the English manager, Maple.son, to $3. A few years later, with the advent of iMadame Patti, the price rose to $5 for orchestra seats, at which it has since remained. In other large cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, the prices for theatre and operatic performances are about one-third less. In London the best the- atres charge $2.50 for good seats, and in Paris the price is but little less. In Germany, with the exception of Berlin, the price of the best seats for either opera or drama seldom exceeds $1.50. Although the Paris Grand Op^ra, built in 1866- 72 from the designs of Charles Garnier, at a cost of about $4,000,000, is the most luxurious the- atre in the world, the chief opera houses in Mu- nich, Dresden, and Vienna are quite as perfect in their way and superior to the Paris house acoustically. The Metropolitan Opera House of New York is the only American theatre that cor- responds with those mentioned in size and ap- pointments. The famous Bayreuth Opera House, built by Richard Wagner in 1876 for the first performance of his Nibelungen trilogy, con- tained many novelties, of which the chief was an orchestra-pit so depressed below the level of the auditorium as to render the musicians invisible to the audience. The new Prince Regent Theatre at Munich, built in 1902, and devoted chiefly to Wagnerian performances, far surpasses the Bay- reuth house in most respects, and is now con- sidered the model opera house of Europe. In France and Germany the State subsidizes its chief theatres. In Paris four theatres — the Grand Opfra, the Op6ra Comique, the The- atre Francais, and the Odfon — are allowed a yearly subsidy, in return for which they agree to produce a certain number of new works by native authors and composers and to give a certain num- ber of free performances. In Berlin. Dresden. Munich, and Vienna the chief opera house and the chief theatre are under control of the State. The actors, singers, musicians, and other em- ployees are entitled to pensions. Law of The.tres. For legal purposes, a the- atre is a house or building adapted and used for the purpose of dramatic performances. The courts differ in the various States as to what may be considered a dramatic performance, but gen- erally almost any exhibition on the stage is in- cluded in this term. Thus, negro minstrel shows