Note 100 — Chapter XIII · HUNGARY AND BOHEMIA; SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA; ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

In the fall of 1905, Stennhammer's opera "Das Fest auf Solhaug" was heard for the first time at the Royal Opera House in Berlin. A condensed version of Ibsen's drama constitutes the libretto. From the very beginning of the introduction to the final note of the last act the listener is primarily impressed by and almost solely interested in the limpid pureness and delicacy, the masterly finish of detail both inner and outer, and the sensitive appreciation for the suppression of dynamic excess as revealed in its orchestration. But the immaturity in the literary form and style of this earlier conception of Ibsen precludes the possibility of more than momentary interest for Stennhammer's opera, unless, perhaps, within the confines of Scandinavian shores.