[_Verdammungs_Motiv_] (Allegro frantico.) [2 dissonances, « and 1 inches below the bass staff]
to show that he is uncomfortable!
It will be interesting for the student to note the difference between the "_Verdammungs_Motiv_" of "Bluebeard" and the" Damnation Motive" of Wagner's earlier opera, "Tannha'user."
[Damnation Motive]
Both are strong, tragic, and powerful, but the sins of Bluebeard are gross and those of Tannha'user subtle; consequently the peril of each is foreshadowed in its own way, it being very clear that Bluebeard's fate is final, while Tannha'user, as we know, is saved by the spiritual influence of Elizabeth, a very different lady indeed from the frivolous and mercenary Fatima.
The plot of this music-drama itself is made beautifully clear by this Vorspiel and lecture-recital, so that even a mother and child at a matine'e can follow the tone-pictures without difficulty; but the libretto, which is a remarkable specimen of Wagner's alliterative verse, only helps the more to rivet attention and compel admiration. I have given you an idea of the brief overture, and the opera itself opens with a somber recitative, descriptive or symbolic of the Dark Ages of Juvenile Literature.
RECITATIVE
"The Dark Ages of Juvenile Literature do not afford a chronicle of greater atrocity!
"Than that furnished by a very glum, grim, gruesome, gory, but connubially-minded gentleman, whose ugly blue beard was a perfect monstrosity!
"He also had an unfortunate predilection for leading unattached ladies to the altar, constantly marrying wives, six wives, successively one after another, on a regular railroad of matrimonial velocity!