26 MARCH 1910, Page 17

STRAUSS'S " ELEKTRA."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—It needs some courage to controvert the popular view that Strauss's new opera is a work of first-rate creative genius. But as you are a supporter of the principle of pro- portional representation, you may be disposed to find space for three expressions of the opinion of the minority. One, which reaches me from Germany, is that Elektra is a comic opera. A second pronounces it to be " Kapellmeisterrausik of the new order." A third takes the form of the following comment : "If you hear two bars of Schubert in Elektra, it sounds quite beautiful. But if you heard the same two bars in Schubert, it would not sound beautiful at all."—I am, Sir, &e.,

I. G.