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We must first study the musical construction of the overture with which the music-drama opens, as it is well known that Wagner in his Preludes prepares the spectator’s mind for the impressions that are to follow. Several of the leading motives appear in this Vorspiel and must be appreciated to be understood. First we have the “Blaubart_motiv” (Bluebeard Motive). This is a theme whose giant march gives us in rhythmic thunders the terrible power of the hero.

[“Blaubart_motiv”]

The “Blaubart_motiv” should be constantly kept in mind, as it is a clue to much of the later action, being introduced whenever Bluebeard budges an inch from his doorstep. We do not hear in it the majestic grandeur of the Wotan or Walsungen motifs, and why? Simply because it was not intended to illustrate godlike power, but brute_force.

Now if this were all, we had no more to say; but listen!

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!

“But, finding them in_toto, all very so-so, determined to turn each one of them into a good woman by cutting off her head!

“As a punishment for the most unmitigatedly determined and persevering female curiosity!”

(With naivete’) “But to our tale!”

The “tale” introduces the lovely, luckless Fatima, sitting at her cottage window, dreaming the dreams of girl-hood. She has received Bluebeard’s message of love, and is awaiting his coming as the hero of her heart’s romance. This “Traum” theme is almost precisely like the “Guileless Fool Motive” of “Parsifal,” and the application to Fatima is unmistakable.

ARIA

“Within sight of his castle, a short hour’s ride,
“An impecunious old lady lived, two marriageable and impecunious daughters beside,
“Whom Bluebeard had seen and at love’s highest pitch
“Sent to say he would marry, he didn’t care which!
“Sent to say he would marry, he didn’t care which!”

We now have Bluebeard’s triumphal journey toward Fatima’s cottage, from whence he is to bring her as his bride. If this brutal bigamist had any preference it was for Anne, Fatima’s younger sister, but he knew that it was only a matter of a few weeks anyway, so there is not the slightest hint in the music of anything but the tempered joy with which the accustomed bridegroom approaches the familiar altar.

We have the “Blaubart Motiv” again here, and we must not be disturbed to find it heralded thus:

(noisily and fussily: Repeated deep notes)

We find the same thing later on. This is merely an introductory phrase, the “Losgehenlassen_Motiv” (See Me Getting Ready to Go Motive). Here we note Wagner’s sublime regard for truth and realism. Does Bluebeard go–does anybody go–without getting ready to go? Certainly not; yet they have gone for years when-ever they liked, in the shiftless operas of the Italian school, without the least preparation. They would even come back before they went, if it were any more pleasing, pictorial, or melodious. It took a heroic genius like that of Wagner to return to the simple, eternal truth of things. We have a striking example here of Wagner’s power of modifying and inverting a motive, carrying it from key to key, giving it forwards and backwards, upside down and other-end-to, according to the feeling he wishes it to express, whether it be love, rage, desire, impatience, ardor, or what not. The “Losgehenlassen_Motiv” is simplicity itself when it first appears in C major (see motive). But Bluebeard’s exits are many –partly because his entrances are so numerous–and for every exit this motive conveys a new meaning. Blue-beard is always getting ready to go, but with what different purposes in mind! He goes for pastime and for passion; he goes for wooing and for wantoning; for marriage and for murder. He goes in D sharp with pomp, pride, and power, and we can distinguish the tread of his servants’ feet, the clatter of arms, and the hurrying together of his escort and retinue. He goes again in B flat minor, stealthily and unattended, the orchestra giving the motive with muted violins and subdued brass. We seem to hear naught but the soft pad-pad of his felt bedroom slippers on the marble steps, and we murmur to one another: “What does he propose to do now?