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Reinhardt's ‘Miracle’ at Olympia: a Record and a Reconstruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Margaret Shewring
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Abstract

Christmas 1911 saw a remarkable collaboration in London between the Austrian director Max Reinhardt and the protean English impresario C. B. Cochran, to create what Margaret Shewring here calls ‘the most remarkable Christmas pantomime ever presented’ – The Miracle, a religious spectacular with a cast of two thousand, staged in the huge arena of the Olympia exhibition centre. Although subsequent revivals of the show, generally in more orthodox performing spaces, have already been documented, there has previously been no full account of this inaugural and in many ways most successful production. Margaret Shewring. who teaches in the Joint School of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick, has drawn on the previously untapped resources of Olympia, now held at Earl's Court, in this account of the spectacle from inception to reception.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , February 1987 , pp. 3 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

Notes and References

1. Advance publicity booklet apparently prepared by staff at Olympia (London: Gale and Polden, 1911), p. 4.

2. Title-page of the official programme.

3. Stern, Ernest, My Life, My Stage (London, 1951), p. 96Google Scholar.

4. Styan, J. L., Max Reinhardt (Cambridge, 1982), p. 93Google Scholar.

5. Sayler, Oliver M., ed., Max Reinhardt and His Theatre (New York, 1924Google Scholar; reprinted 1968).

6. Designer Oscar Stmad, costumes by Oliver Messel, choreography by Léonide Massine (who also played the Spielmann), 1932. The Madonna was played by Lady Diana Cooper and the Nun by Tilly Losch.

7. This Regiebuch is dated in Reinhardt's hand, 1 December 1911.

8. Music by Engelbert Humperdinck, vocal score arranged by Friedrich Schirmer (Berlin: E. D. Bote and G. Bock, 1912). Unfortunately the full orchestral score has disappeared.

9. References in various letters suggest that Mr. Smith was bom in 1911 or 1912 and that he was ‘in the timber business’. I can find no trace of him, or any publication by him, beyond these papers at Earl's Court.

10. Clunn, Harold P., The Face of London (London, 1960), p. 454Google Scholar.

11. See Cochran's, autobiographies: I Had Almost Forgotten (London, 1932)Google Scholar; Cock-a-Doodle-Do (London, 1941); Showman Looks On (London, 1945). See also Heppner, Sam, Cockie (London, 1969)Google Scholar.

12. See Hibbert, H. G., A Playgoer's Memories (London, 1920), p. 168Google Scholar.

13. The production is best remembered for its memorable crowd scenes.

14. Where Reinhardt was working at the time.

15. C. B. Cochran, Cock-a-Doodle-Do, p. 158.

16. For further details see Cochran's autobiographies and Felton, Felix, ‘Max Reinhardt in England’, in journal of the International Federation for Theatre Research, V, No. 3 (1963), p. 134–140Google Scholar.

17. C. B. Cochran, I Had Almost Forgotten, p. 279.

18. Play without words by Friedrich Freksa; music by Victor Hollaender; designed by Ernst Stem.

19. William Poel praised The Miracle for giving ‘practical shape on a large scale to the principle of Elizabethan staging’: Poel, William, Monthly Letters (London, 1929), p. 84Google Scholar, quoted by J. L. Styan, Max Reinhardt, p. 86.

20. From 10 February 1904, Maeterlinck's Sister Beatrice was presented in repertory at the Neues Theater, Berlin.

21. Official programme for The Miracle, p. 3.

22. This figure is taken from Geoffrey Cuttill, who was in charge of the Keith Prowse booking office for the production (letter in Olympia Archive, Earl's Court). Styan puts the capacity at 8,000 (Max Reinhardt, p. 93).

23. The architect was Hermann Demburg, brother of the Colonial Minister of Germany.

24. ‘H.V.M.’, ‘The Story of The Miracle’, in The Playgoer and Society Illustrated, V, No. 28, p. 110.

25. Ernst Stem, My Life, My Stage, p. 92.

26. Reinhardt's friend, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, recalls the rose windows as ‘thrice the diameter of the famous rose-window of Notre Dame’ (see Felix Felton, ‘Max Reinhardt in England’, p. 135).

27. Styan notes that ‘Reinhardt had 40,000 tons of earth excavated for a trap in the centre of the arena, using half a million bricks to support the walls of the pit beneath’ (Max Reinhardt, p. 97). See also Banke, Cecile de, Hand over Hand (London, 1957), p. 183Google Scholar.

28. Carter, Huntley, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt (New York, 1914), p. 232Google Scholar. The floor of the great hall is now solid concrete.

29. C. de Banke. Hand over Hand p. 183.

30. Synopsis from official programme, 1911, p. 2.

31. The electrical work at Olympia was carried out under the supervision of Albion T. Snell, M.I.C.E.

32. Eyles, F. A. H. in Pall Mall Magazine, XLIX, No. 225 (01 1912), p. 15Google Scholar.

33 Ibid.

34. Dean, Basil, ‘Recollections and Reflections’, in Tabs, XX, No. 3 (12 1962), p. 8–9Google Scholar. Dean visited the Deutsches Theater early in 1911.

35. Ibid, p. 9.

36. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 183.

37. Hoppé, E. O., ‘My Recollections of Max Reinhardt’, in The Lady, 12 09 1963, p. 352Google Scholar. See also Palmer, John, Saturday Review, 20 01 1912, p. 75Google Scholar.

38. Huntley Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt, p. 231.

39. Ibid., p. 237.

40. Styan, Max Reinhardt, p. 99.

41. Stem, My Life, My Stage, p. 91.

42. The Playgoer and Society Illustrated, V, No. 28, p. 110.

43. Stem, My Life, My Stage, p. 92.

44. Ibid.

45. A technique used by the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.

46. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 184.

47. See Sam Heppner, Cockie, p. 64–5, and Felix Felton, ‘Max Reinhardt in England’, p. 135.

48. See Sam Heppner, Cockie, p. 64–5.

49. The Miracle made such strenuous demands on the principals that the main roles were shared during the run. The Nun was played by Natasha Trouhanova, Muriel Ridley, and Dorothy Bowett; the Madonna by Maria Carmi and Lilian Braithwaite; the Spielmann by Max Pallenberg, J. H. Irvine, and Marcel Brom.

50. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 181.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid., p. 183.

54. Sam Heppner, Cockie, p. 64.

55. C. B. Cochran, Showman Looks On, p. 32.

56. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 184. In breaks in rehearsal a schoolroom was set up for the children – one of whom was the young Gertrude Lawrence.

57. See Felix Felton, ‘Max Reinhardt in England’, p. 135.

58. Ibid.

59. The choir was situated in the gallery, on the north-western side of the hall. They were selected and trained by Van den Straeten.

60. The firm was later taken over by Henry Willis.

61. Pall Mall Magazine, January 1912, p. 16.

62. For the early performances the conductor was Gustav Hollaender, president of the Stem Conservatoire of Music in Berlin and brother of Felix Hollaender, who wrote the music for Sumurûn. During the run, two other conductors' names appear in the programme: Oscar Fried (also from Berlin, who directed the Hallé concerts in Manchester in 1911) and Friedrich Schirmer (a pupil of Humperdinck, and arranger of the vocal score).

63. From a letter from the organist L. Rupert Pike, to J. B. Smith, 25 November 1967 (Olympia Archive, Earl's Court).

64. Crescent Foundry, Spelman Street, Bell Founders to His Majesty the King.

65. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 185.

66. Certainly John Wamer and Sons Ltd won the Grand Prix at the Pageant of Empire, Crystal Palace, 1911, and this is noted in the programme for The Miracle.

67. I am grateful to Mr. R. W. M. Clouston for information from the records he holds of the firm of John Warner and Sons, Ltd, and to Mr. W. A. Hughes of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London.

68. The following impression of the spectacle is pieced together from the scenario, the vocal score, the Regiebuch, and from eye-witness accounts (in the form of letters, memoirs, and journalists' reviews). My thanks go to Janet and Bob Thomas for their help in interpreting the score.

69. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 180.

70. Letter from Professor Vivian Langrish to J. B. Smith (Olympia Archive, Earl's Court).

71. Published in 1912, apparently a limited edition (no imprint). There is a copy in the archive at Earl's Court.

72. Reinhardt, Gottfried, The Genius: a Memoir of Max Reinhardt by his Son (New York, 1979), p. 341Google Scholar.

73. Part 1, Figure 27, p. 22.

74. Accounts suggest that the Child was snatched upwards into the canopy.

75. The German is Dudelsack, so I assume that ‘bagpipes’ were, indeed, used.

76. See Styan, Max Reinhardt, p. 99–100.

77. C. de Banke, Hand over Hand, p. 183.

78. Huntley Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt, p. 232–3. See also J. L. Styan, Max Reinhardt, p. 99.

79. The Telegraph reported that the London County Council ordered the scene to be cut (see Styan, p. 99). This may account for Dorothy Bowett's memory that the Intermezzo contained only six scenes (letter in Olympia Archive, Earl's Court). According to the official programme, ‘the Flame effect’ in the Intermezzo was by Messrs. Schwabe and Co., Berlin.

80. Moussinac, Léon, Le théâtre des origines à nos jours (Paris, 1957), p. 80Google Scholar.

81. The first performance of von Hofmannsthal's Everyman in the Circus Schumann, Berlin (with Moissi as Everyman and Roller as scenic designer), also took place in 1911.

82. Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal established the Salzburg festival in 1920. Everyman was staged in the Domplatz in that year.

83. The Times. 25 December 1911.

84. Pall Mall Magazine, January 1912, p. 10.

85. Huntley Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt, p. 238–9.

86. The Times, 25 December 1911.

87. Grein, J. T., The Sunday Times, 24 12 1911Google Scholar.

88. Ernst Stem, My Life, My Stage, p. 96.

89. The Athenaeum, quoted by Gottfried Reinhardt, in The Genius, p. 343.

90. The Sunday Times, 24 December 1911.

91. Berliner Tageblatt. 27 December 1911, quoted by Gottfried Reinhardt, The Genius, p. 341.

92. Illustrated London News, 30 December 1911, p. 1106.

93. This note does not appear in programmes for the early weeks of the run, but it was certainly included by the hundredth performance.

94. Sam Heppner, Cockie, p. 65–6.

95. Berliner Tageblatt, 27 December 1911, quoted by Gottfried Reinhardt, The Genius, p. 342.

96. See letters in the Olympia Archive at Earl's Court.

97. The Sunday Times, 24 December 1911.

98. The Times, 25 December 1911.

99. Punch, 10 January 1912, p. 32; The Athenaeum, 30 December 1911, p. 827.

100. See Hibbert, A Playgoer's Memories, p. 173–4, and Sam Heppner, Cockie, p. 66–8. See also Fyfe, Hamilton, Northcliffe: an Intimate Biography (London, 1930)Google Scholar, and Fyfe, Hamilton, Sixty Years of Fleet Street (London, 1949)Google Scholar.

101. The film was made while the production was at Vienna in 1912, on location inside Count Wilczek's castle at Kreutzenstein and outside the twelfth-century cathedral at Pechelsdorf. The cast included Maria Carmi (Madonna), Florence Winston (Nun), and Ernst Matray (Spielmann). The sole rights of the cinematic reproduction were owned by Joseph Menchen.

102. The programme for Covent Garden describes the work as ‘a Lyricscope Play in colours’. A handwritten date on the corner of the title-page seems to be ‘1913’.

103. L. Rupert Pike (letter in Olympia Archive, Earl's Court).

104. One of J. B. Smith's correspondents recalls singing professionally for the film at Teignmouth Cinema for a fee of one guinea (Olympia Archive, Earl's Court).

105. The presentation in Vienna is of special interest for its use of back projection to create the scenes (letter, Olympia Archive, Earl's Court).

106. In 1959 a film of The Miracle was made with Carroll Baker as the Nun.

107. Most notably Lady Diana Manners (Duff-Cooper). See Ziegler, Philip, Diana Cooper (London, 1981)Google Scholar; Cooper, Diana, The Rainbow Comes and Goes (London, 1958)Google Scholar; and Cooper, Diana, The Light of Common Day (London, 1959)Google Scholar.

108. C. B. Cochran, Cock-a-Doodle-Do. p. 158.