The measures that follow these describe the tiger swinging on behind the
triumphal cab. This is a delicious whimsicality, and the music is as gay
and sportive as anything in "Die Meistersinger."

ARIA

"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