theatrical, but not poetic--"effect without a cause."

[Footnote 12: _Ges. Schr., iii, p. 372.]

Compare with this the scene in the third act of _Parsifal_. The
verdant landscape is here no mere theatrical decoration; if it were,
we should scarcely go into a theatre to see what can be seen in far
greater perfection in any green place on a spring morning. It is the
dramatic representation of an idea perhaps suggested to Wagner by
Goethe's _Faust_, but as old as Christianity itself. The task is
achieved; the spear has been regained, and all nature smiling in its
flowery robes rejoices in the redemption of that Easter morning; even
the withered flower-maidens add their strains to the universal chorus.
How is such a miracle possible? Only by music in organic union with
the dramatic situation. Persuasive as a living person it is able to
carry us into realms far beyond those of language and reason, to the
realm of wonder. The decorations of the Grand Opera are as artificial
and mechanical as modern dress; they are imposed by the fashion of the
day, the caprice of the luxurious, and stand in no relation to the
body to which they are fitted.[13]

[Footnote 13: Those who are interested in the subject will find some
admirable observations in Lessing's _Hamburger Dramaturgie_,
11tes. and 12tes. Stueck, where the critic compares the ghost of Ninus
in Voltaire's _Semiramis_ with the ghost in _Hamlet_. He
condemns the former because it is nothing more than a poetical
machine, while Shakespeare's is one of the persons of the drama. His
position is essentially the same as Wagner's.]

The loose construction of the Italian opera has at least one