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