'Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama'

Just opened last Friday at New York City's Jewish Museum, this is the first major museum show ever devoted to the great French actress (above, at age 20).

The show features 250 "spectacular and rarely seen objects spanning the remarkable career of the incomparable French stage actress and the world's first movie star."

Edward Rothstein of the New York Times, who is not prone to excess, wrote a rapturous review of the show, which appeared in last Friday's paper.

There was "... something more powerful and more mysterious that set her apart from those who followed. Something happened when she appeared onstage, and it remained powerful for nearly half a century," he commented.

Wrote Rothstein, "When Freud saw her perform in Paris in 1885, for example, he wrote 'my head is reeling' and hung her photo in his office. D.H. Lawrence, in 1906, could barely contain himself, comparing her to 'a gazelle with a beautiful panther's fascination and fury.' Oscar Wilde wrote 'Salome' for her. And Proust, who modeled characters after members of her circle, portrays her as Berma, an actress whose poses 'melted into a sort of radiance' suffused with 'rich and complex elements.'"

The show remains up through April 2, 2006.

The Jewish Museum is at 1109 Fifth Avenue (92nd Street); 212-423-3200; http://www.thejewishmuseum.org.