[To THE EDITOR OE THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—In answer to the
question put by your correspondent Mr. C. C. Macrae in last week's issue of the Spectator, I should like to say that I, for one, was not in the least impressed with any sense of "awe and horror" by the Elektra of Strauss. But I was greatly impressed with a sense of horridness,—a very different matter. Horror can be, and often is, allied with conceptions of sublimity ; the other can only be asso- ciated with what is degraded or revolting. As it is this aspect of human nature that chiefly asserts itself in the opera, neither the marvellous cleverness, nor in certain passages the great beauty of the music, can redeem the whole from being a most unlovely production. Truly one is sometimes led to marvel at what attracts, or seems to attract, the British audience.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EDITH SWIUSTONE.
10 King Edward Road, Hackney, N.E.
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