"And an elephant, huge, to his cab... was confined."....
How the character of Bluebeard stands out in these passages--Bluebeard,
morbid, erotic, megalophonous megalomaniac, with his grandiose air and
outlandish accoutrements!
It seems odd that rumors of his matrimonial past had not reached Fatima,
for the libretto tells us (authorized opera-house edition, not the one sold
on the sidewalk) that his castle was only an hour's ride distant. In any
event, one would think the sight of the lover's approach, with lions and
elephants in attendance and a tiger hanging on behind the chariot, might
have shown Fatima that, although Bluebeard might be admirable as an advance
agent for a menagerie, he would hardly be a pleasant fireside companion.
However, it was the old story! Moved by love, ambition, poverty, ennui, or
what not, Fatima lost her head, as all Bluebeard's previous wives had done,
both before and after marriage, and left the humble home of her childhood
for the unknown castle. Simple chords give us this information thus:
(Semplice, piano for the Humble Home; Agitato, fortissimo for the Unknown
Castle.)
Then comes the "_Liebesgruss_Motiv_" (Love's Greeting Motive). No single
instrument can give this exquisite theme. The whole symphony of human
nature seems to rise and spread its wings in a glorious harmony of pairs
and twos of a kind melting in passionate octaves and triplets. The
groping, ardent, distracted, thwarted, but ever protesting bass, set
against a coquettish, evasive, yet timidly yielding treble; the occasional
introduction of a mysterious minor in the midst of a well-authenticated
major, gives us an intimation that wooing is not an exact science.
Next come the "_Hochzeitsreise_und_Flitter_Wochen_Motive_" (The Bridal Tour
and Honeymoon motives). Here are harp _glissandos_; here are voices
soaring, voices roaring, voices darting, voices floating, weaving an
audible embroidery of sound. They make up the most exquisitely tender scene
of the opera, and arc especially interesting to us in America, since they
are built upon one of our national songs. This can only be regarded as a
flattering recognition of our support of German opera in this country.