THE BURNING OF MOSCOW.
LOWERING A SCENE.
An amphitheater is provided for the spectators in a rectangular enclosure which may seat as many as ten thousand persons. The seats slope away until the water is reached; here will be found an artificial lake, usually three hundred and eighteen feet long and one hundred and fifty feet wide, and the width of the entire stage being three hundred and fifty feet. Behind the pond is a stage mounted with set scenes. Of course, owing to the distance and darkness, the refinements of acting would be entirely wasted. The management, therefore, depends almost entirely on the spectacular, the cast including companies of clever gymnasts and acrobats.
The performance is so arranged as to lead up to some stirring catastrophe. The climax is generally awful cataclysm, or some blood-curdling war scene, or a conflagration.
We select for the purpose of illustration one of the most successful of these spectacles, the “Burning of Moscow” at the time of the French invasion. The scene is a true representation of the docks and quays of the ancient Russian capital. At each side appear arched stone bridges, and the whole is surrounded by strong fortifications; sentinels walk back and forth upon the walls of the Kremlin. The action of the drama is but brief, and after a gymnastic exhibition of marching and countermarching by the actors, the band plays the solemn strains of the Russian national hymn, while priests of the Greek Church render classical music of a somber character, which has a striking effect. The army of Napoleon now approaches, shells begin to fly over the doomed city, and, as the bearskins of the French grenadiers appear at the entrances at either side, the terrorized Russians rapidly disappear.
SECTION THROUGH A SCENE.