Bluebeard's Castle

Synopsis
Judith, Bluebeard’s fourth wife, discovers a huge dark room in her castle, with a sad and mysterious atmosphere, surrounded by seven closed doors. Bluebeard finally gives her permission to open the first six to let in a little light. The seventh, however, is strictly forbidden to her. But Judith braves the ban, to her misfortune...

Ambiguous Bluebeard
Bartók was 30 years old when he composed this pivotal work with a libretto by Bela Balázs. For the composer, Bluebeard's Castle is a collection of notable firsts: his first (and only) opera, his first vocal work and the first truly Hungarian opera. While drawing from the repertoire of Hungarian popular music, the composer confirms a real appetite for change with this work and signs off on one of the key pieces of 20th century modernism. In one act, this short opera aims more for efficiency than lyricism. If the libretto gives a central place to the musicality of the Hungarian language, it is the very colorful score which conveys the drama of the work and its hidden, unspoken emotions. Ukrainian director Andriy Zholdak exploits the ambiguity of this Bluebeard to the full, offering us, in the same evening, two radical stagings, intense and sensual, highlighting the different ways in which the same work and the same actions can be perceived.
 

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