Wherever he found a public accustomed to oratorio performances he inquired into the possibility of establishing his sacred theatre there.

He laid the project before the Grand Duke of Weimar, who told him that it was feasible only in large cities.

The advice sent him to Berlin, where he opened his mind to the Minister of Education, von Muhler.

The official had his doubts; sacred operas might do for Old Testament stories, but not for New; moreover, such a theatre should be a private, not a governmental, undertaking.

He sought the opinion of Stanley, Dean of Westminster Abbey, who said that he could only conceive a realization of the idea in the oldtime popular manner, upon a rude stage at a country fair.
For a space it looked as if the leaders of the Jewish congregations in Paris would provide funds for the enterprise so far as it concerned itself with subjects taken from the Old Dispensation; but at the last they backed out, fearing to take the initiative in a matter likely to cause popular clamor.