I am the Poker.
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[Illustration: VENUS (ANNO DOMINI 1892) RISES FROM THE SEA!!]
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OPERATIC NOTES.
_Wednesday_.--Great German Night. Third Part of the Festival Play for
Four Nights by RICHARD WAGNER, with (thank goodness just to lighten
it) an English translation by the Messrs. CORDER.
"_Sursum Corder!_" A light and airy work as everyone knows is _Der
Ring des Nibelungen_, or _The Nibelung's Ring_, requiring all the
power of lungs to get the true ring out of the work. Hard work for
singers, more so for orchestra, and most so for audience. As for the
"Ring," there are a lot of animals in the Opera, but no horse, so the
Circus entertainment is not complete until _Bruennhilde_ shall appear
in the next part of the tetralogy, with her highly-trained steed.
Odd! Throughout two long (and, ahem! somewhat weary, eh?) Acts, not
a female singer visible on stage (though one sings "like a bird" off
it,--that is, quite appropriately, "at the wings"), and not until the
Third Act, does _Erda_ the witch "rise from below," and we all saw
her and 'Erd 'er. Then, later on, appears _Bruennhilde_, asleep, "in
a complete suit of gleaming plate-armour, with helmet on her head and
long shield over her body," a style of free-and-easy costume which, as
everyone knows, is highly conducive to sleeping in perfect comfort.
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