Bagpipes Sackbuts Triangles
Virginals Viol d'Amore B-flat Cornet
Exit to Fire Escape Accordions
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Fatima, singing actress (whose part here is written almost entirely in
appoggiaturas), and Mustapha, baritone, hold the stage; the one who draws
the largest salary occupying the center and the other standing wherever he
can find room. Mustapha, taking care to descend as low in his scale as
Fatima ascends high in hers, and vying with her in exceeding the
speed-limit, sings "Oh ra-ha-ha-hap-ture !" several times, varied by "What
can e-he-he-he-qual a brother's love?" Then, using the same words, they
sing as much as possible in unison to the end of the scene, which closes
with a fantasy of capricious arabesques and a series of trills on notes
seldom heard from any but the high-est-priced human lips.

Ah! What joy!.....What rap---ture! What can e---qual a brother's love?
Oh joy!........Oh joy!.........Oh, joy!........
(Cadenza according to the skill of the performer.)

Whether Wagner followed the Italian school in this case in sarcasm, or
because he believed it was fitting, considering the subject, can never be
known (though we remember that he was at one time a great admirer of
Bellini); but the result is a melodious and restful ending to a tragedy
which, were it carried to the end in unbroken gloom, mystery, and carnage,
would be too terrible and too vast for human endurance and human
comprehension. Yet let us be just! The libretto is full of barbaric
brutalities; it is replete with blood and carnage; but, although Bluebeard
was emphatically not a nice person, and his vices cannot be condoned, and
although Fatima was wrong in marrying for an establishment and most