" ELEKTRA."
THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Srn,—Will you allow me to thank you and "C. L. G." for his admirahle article on Strauss's Elektra published in your issue of the 12th inst. ? In face of the general eulogy with which this work has been acclaimed, it is refreshing to meet a criticism which appeals to a higher and healthier standard of art than that which holds Elektra up to admiration. I am not qualified to judge of its technical musical qualities, but I can, with " 0. L. G.," perceive the degradation to which a theme which has been treated with supreme majesty and dignity by the great Greek traliedians has been here subjected. What would Goethe have said to it, or even Wagner, whose treatment of his mythical heroes and heroines is in such marked contrast ? Apart from all this, it seems to me that both Dr. Strauss and his librettist utterly fail to achieve the object which I presume they desire to attain,—viz., to impress their audiences with a sense of awc and horror. Of course the Aristotelian criterion of the true note of tragedy being the awakening of sympathy is out of their design. But unless that design be merely to depict how squalid an animal may be the primitive human, which I conceive is less likely to be the intention than that which I have indicated, can any one who has attended the perform- ances say that that latter impression has been conveyed to
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