ABSTRACT
My dear Semar, On leaving Florence you asked me to send you some news of the theatres
that I should see in Germany, England and Russia, and I had no sooner arrived at Munich than I wanted to send you news enough to fill three numbers of The Mask. On getting as far as Amsterdam I wanted to send you more news, and
now that I am in England I see that it is absolutely necessary to delay no longer. To write to you about the Art of the Theatre I don’t intend, because the
Art of the Theatre positively does not exist, but one can write about the activity and inactivity of the Theatre, and if you ask me where the Theatre is most active, I reply it is in Germany. The German activity is not only impulsive but systematic, and this combination is going to bring the German Theatre in twenty years to the foremost position in Europe. I judge by what I see and not by what I hear, and this is what I have seen in Munich. I have seen princes lending their name and giving their money to the
furtherance of the Theatre. I have seen a new building which has been erected in Munich by the architect, Professor Littmann.2 I have been over this theatre, and I can assure you that it is first class, that it is not a foolish affair with several balconies one over the other, with unnecessary gilt or marble columns, with unnecessary draperies of plush or silk, or with some vast chandelier, or with the ordinary orchestra boxes and the ordinary stage. It is quite out of the ordinary in every way, and yet you see princes support it, without calling it eccentric, and, what is more, the people support it. I myself tried to obtain a seat for the evening’s performance, and although it was at the end of the season, it was impossible to do so. Through the courtesy of Professor Littmann I was able to go on to the stage during the day, and into the auditorium, and I was shown the scenic devices and those for lighting.
