Salomo's Urtheil

“Despite the exceptionally lamentable weather yesterday, the temperature in the Stadttheater was pleasant, which is quite familiar to the habitués of this theater. The novelty, ‘Salomo’s Urtheil’ – a ‘novelty,’ which, by the way, enjoys a respectable age of 50 years – did not receive an exceptionally warm reception by its audience, well-represented yesterday by military men. In fact, one weather-drenched sergeant from the 58th Regiment, upon leaving the theater, expressed that he would rather have read the shorter and better version of the story, namely, the one in the Old Testament. One of the few merits of Schröder’s work is that it is not actually a play, but an old opera which has been reworked. The language – unfortunately, it’s written in verse – is stiff and awkward, and moves nearly continuously on the cothurni of hollow phrases. As presented, the play was tolerable, even though some of the actors suffered temporary memory lapses. The choir and orchestra did not seem in the best of agreement with each other, and, last night at least, they were not in harmony. If we end our review with the remark that ‘Salomo’s Urteil’ is to be followed by the ‘Ewige Juden’ [sic], then we will have fulfilled our duty as reporters and reviewed the above-named work fairly.”