from massacre, is preserved and her deed celebrated by the Jews in
their gracious festival of Purim. A gorgeous figure for the stage,
she has been relegated to the oratorio platform since the end of
the eighteenth century. Racine's tragedy "Athalie" has called out
music from Abbe Vogler, Gossec, Boieldieu, Mendelssohn, and others,
and a few oratorios, one by Handel, have been based on the story of
the woman through whom idolatry was introduced into Judah; but I
have no record of any Athalia opera.




CHAPTER III

RUBINSTEIN'S "GEISTLICHE OPER"


I have a strong belief in the essential excellence of Biblical
subjects for the purposes of the lyric drama--at least from an
historical point of view. I can see no reason against but many
reasons in favor of a return to the stage of the patriarchal and
heroic figures of the people who are a more potent power in the
world to-day, despite their dispersal and loss of national unity,
than they were in the days of their political grandeur and glory.
Throughout the greater part of his creative career Anton Rubinstein
was the champion of a similar idea. Of the twenty works which he
wrote for the theatre, including ballets, six were on Biblical
subjects, and to promote a propaganda which began with the
composition of "Der Thurmbau zu Babel," in 1870, he not only
entered the literary field, but made personal appeal for practical