Today we have Ben Hur playing on stage at the O2 arena in London.
One hundred years ago saw the single performance, considered then to be the costliest ever, of an English translation of Schiller’s Maid of Orleans, starring American actress Maude Adams & a cast of 1300:
"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909 in the presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success, and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven's "Eroica," which accentuated the noble poetry of Schiller.
One hundred years ago saw the single performance, considered then to be the costliest ever, of an English translation of Schiller’s Maid of Orleans, starring American actress Maude Adams & a cast of 1300:
"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909 in the presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success, and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven's "Eroica," which accentuated the noble poetry of Schiller.
