"The Tower of Babel" has been performed upon the stage; how I cannot
even guess. Knowing, probably, that the work would be given in concert
form oftener than in dramatic, Rubinstein tries to stimulate the fancy
of those who must be only listeners by profuse stage directions which
are printed in the score as well as the book of words. "Moses" is in
the same case. By the time that Rubinstein had completed it he
evidently realized that its hybrid character as well as its stupendous
scope would stand in the way of performances of any kind. Before even a
portion of its music had been heard in public, he wrote in a letter to
a friend: "It is too theatrical for the concert-room and too much like
an oratorio for the theatre. It is, in fact, the perfect type of the
sacred opera that I have dreamed of for years. What will come of it I
do not know; I do not think it can be performed entire. As it contains
eight distinct parts, one or two may from time to time be given either
in a concert or on the stage."
America was the first country to act on the suggestion of a fragmentary
performance. The first scene was brought forward in New York by Walter
Damrosch at a public rehearsal and concert of the Symphony Society (the
Oratorio Society assisting) on January 18 and 19, 1889. The third scene
was performed by the German Liederkranz, under Reinhold L. Herman, on
January 27 of the same year. The third and fourth scenes were in the
scheme of the Cincinnati Music Festival, Theodore Thomas, conductor, on
May 25,1894.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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