Bluebeard; a musical fantasy , livre ebook

Pub One Info - Smith Wiggin Kate Douglas

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. More than a dozen years ago musical scholars and critics began to illuminate the musical darkness of New York with lecture-recitals explanatory of the more abstruse German operas. Previous to this era no one had ever thought, for instance, of unfolding the story, or the "Leit motive" (if there happened to be any! ), in "The Bohemian Girl, " "Maritana, " or "Martha. " These and many other delightful but thoroughly third-class works unfolded themselves as they went along, to the entire satisfaction of a public so unbelievably care-free, happy, thoughtless, childlike, uninstructed, that it hardly seems as if they could have been our ancestors.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819948780
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0050€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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PREFACE
More than a dozen years ago musical scholars andcritics began to illuminate the musical darkness of New York withlecture-recitals explanatory of the more abstruse German operas.Previous to this era no one had ever thought, for instance, ofunfolding the story, or the “ Leit motive ” (if therehappened to be any! ), in “The Bohemian Girl, ” “Maritana, ” or“Martha. ” These and many other delightful but thoroughlythird-class works unfolded themselves as they went along, to theentire satisfaction of a public so unbelievably care-free, happy,thoughtless, childlike, uninstructed, that it hardly seems as ifthey could have been our ancestors.
Wagner changed all this at a single blow. One couldno longer leave one's brains with one's hat in the coat-room whenthe “Nibelungen Ring”appeared! Learned critics, pitifullycomprehending the fathomless ignorance of the people, began to givelectures on the “Ring” to large audiences, mostly of ladies,through whom in course of time a certain amount of informationpercolated and reached the husbands— the somewhat circuitous, butonly possible method by which aesthetic knowledge can be conveyedto the American male. Women are hopeless idealists! It is notenough for them that their brothers or husbands should pay for theseats at the opera and accompany them there, clad in irreproachableevening dress. Not at all! They wish them to sit erect, keep awake,and look intelligent, and it is but just to say that many of themsucceed in doing so. The art-form known as the lecture-recital,then, has succeeded in forcibly educating so large a section of thepublic that immense audiences gather at the Metropolitan OperaHouse, one-half of them at least, in a state of such chastenedsusceptibility and erudition that the Tetralogy of Wagner has noterrors for them.
The next move was in behalf of the more cryptic,symbolic, hectic, toxic works of the ultra-modern French school,which have been so brilliantly illuminated by their protagoniststhat thousands of women in the larger cities recognize a master'svoice whenever one of his themes is played upon the Victrola.
I shall offer my practically priceless manuscript of“Bluebeard” for production in French at the Metropolitan, and inEnglish at the Century Opera House; meantime Mr. Hammerstein is soimpressed with its originality, audacity, and tragic power that heis laying the corner-stone for a magnificent new building and willopen and close it with “Bluebeard” in German, if no unforeseenlegal complications should prevent.
It is in preparation for all this activity that Iissue this brief but epoch-making little work.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN. NEW YORK, February, 1914.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Bluebeard ( baritone ). Man of enormous wealthbut dubious morals. Pioneer of the trial-marriage idea.
Fatima ( singing actress_). Innocent,romantic, frivolous blonde type, rich in personal charm, weak inlogic and a poor judge of men.
Sister Anne ( soprano ). Impulsive, magnetic,ambitious, highly marriageable brunette.
The Mother ( contralto ). Impecunious,mercenary widow, determined to settle her daughters in life withoutany regard to eugenic principles.
Mustapha ( robust tenor_). Elder brother;the one who has the fat acting part since he rescues Fatima andslays Bluebeard.
Other Brothers ( falsettos ). Of no accountsave to show the size of the family to which Fatima belongs and hermother's sound convictions on the subject of race suicide. Theother brothers have nothing to do except to slay sheep (byaccident) when attempting to destroy Bluebeard's tiger andelephant.
The Tiger ( throaty baritone_). Comiccharacter.
The Elephant & The Dragon ( basses ).Introduced simply as corroborative detail.
Chorus of Bluebeard's Vassals ( baritones and basses ).
Chorus of Headless Wives ( sopranos and contraltos ).
Chorus of Sheep ( tenors ).
Bluebeard
(Lecture-Recital)
WE are proceeding on the supposition that thismusic-drama of “Bluebeard” is a posthumous work of Richard Wagner.It is said (our authority being a late number of the musical andCourt Journal, Die Fliegende Bla'tter ) that a housemaid,while tidying one of the rooms in a villa formerly occupied by theWagner family in summer, perceived an enormous halo shiningpersistently over a certain bedstead standing against the wall, thesaid halo absolutely refusing to remove itself when attacked with afeather- duster. The housemaid thought at first that it was simplyan effect of the sunlight, but observed subsequently that the halowas just as large, fine yellow, opaque, and circular on dark daysas on bright ones; consequently, on a certain morning when it wasso huge and glaring as to be positively offensive to the eye,inasmuch as it did not hang over a Holy Family, but over anordinary and somewhat uncomfortable article of furniture, sheadopted the courageous feminine expedient of looking underneath thebed, where she found this priceless legacy of the master reposingin a hat-box in which it had lain for nearly half a century,unsuspected, undisturbed.
If this incident is true it is exquisitely prettyand touching; if not, it is highly absurd and ridiculous, but thesame may be said of many hypothetical historical incidents. At allevents, the financial arrangements which followed upon thediscovery of the MS. and the price demanded for it by the Wagnerianhousemaid convinces me absolutely of its authenticity.
To me it is not strange that Wagner should choose toimmortalize the story of Bluebeard, for the interesting andinspiring myth has been used in all ages and in all countries.

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