The Most Perfect Theater in the World

The new opera house built by Richard Wagner in Bayreuth surpasses the Paris opera house in appliances for creating effects. Not only are there galvanic batteries, with Ruhmkorff coils, etc., and some 3,000 gas jets, but steam-engines to produce some of the motions required, [251] while the rising mists and gathering clouds needed for scenic effects are produced by two large boilers placed at a short distance from the theater, whose steam is carried by pipes to a reservoir, from which it can be distributed by a network of tubes over the whole stage. In the corner towers of the theater are two cisterns, each holding about 1,200 gallons, from which water can be obtained at a very high pressure in case of accident, and for real waterfalls and fountains in the scenery. The gas and water works alone of the theater cost $30,000.