ABSTRACT
L. Tolstoy describes a visit he made to the rehearsal for a new opera. He describes how he entered the theatre through a side entrance, passed the people at work behind the scenes, the dozens of extras, and arrived in the main part of the theatre where the rehearsal was already in progress, under the direction of the dancing master, the dramatic coach and the conductor. He describes how he entered the theatre through a side entrance, passed the people at work behind the scenes, the dozens of extras, and arrived in the main part of the theatre where the rehearsal was already in progress, under the direction of the dancing master, the dramatic coach and the conductor. In each branch of art, one finds different schools; the members of any given school reject the views expressed by members of all the others: The artists of various sects, like the theologians of various sects, mutually exclude and destroy one another.
