, and nothing ambitious is
attempted. As a bit of music it is infinitely superior to the clumsy
wooden bridal chorus in _Lohengrin_; the touch is light, the melodies
fresh and dainty, and the subdued hum of the wheels and the bustle are
suggested throughout without becoming monotonous. Not for a musical,
but for a purely theatrical, reason we get a snatch of (_k_); Senta is
not spinning; she is engaged in staring at the picture. After much
chattering she sings the ballad, and at the end declaims her intention
of saving the Dutchman to the music which is employed when she
actually accomplishes that feat. When Eric rushes in, the orchestra
has the usual operatic storm-in-a-teacup sort of stuff; the chattering
chorus of women getting ready for Daland's reception is neither here
nor there; Eric's expostulations are insignificant, and the air he
sings--with interruptions on the part of Senta--is by no means equal
to the better parts of the opera. Here Wagner has again been faced by
the difficulty he met in the first act: a prosaic scene had to be set
to poetic music, and the task was beyond him. Eric is one of the most
frightfully conventional personages in opera; he bores and exasperates
one to madness. He warbles away in the approved Italian tenor fashion
while one's enthusiasm is growing cold and one's interest waning. His
dream, however, in which he sees Senta meet the Dutchman, embrace him
and sail away with him, has a genuine ring. The atmosphere is strange,
almost nightmareish, with the Dutchman theme sounding up at intervals,
dreamlike. With the exception of the mere mention of this motive in
the score, the music is new, is not evolved out of previous passages;
but when Eric has finished we hear the Senta theme, both sections.
The Dutchman and Daland enter, and we hear (_f_) three times in all;
but there is no development of it. Daland's air is entirely fresh
matter; as is the opening of the big duet between the Dutchman and
Senta.

We are now approaching the supreme moment of the drama. The Dutchman's
recitative-like beginning--declamation of the same type, and with the
same accent, as some recitative in the song-tournament in
_Tannhaeuser_--is noble in the highest degree; we have a recurrence of
the dream-atmosphere at Senta's words, "Versank ich jetzt in
wunderbares Traeumen?"--for though her fanaticism is all too real, when
her opportunity comes she is for the moment incredulous. It hardly
does to consider the m