Schedule for Bela Bartok "Duke Bluebeard's Castle" 2022


Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra

Bela Bartok's opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was originally staged for the English National Opera, where it was successfully presented last season. Exchange of productions is a frequent practice among the world opera companies, as it allows to share experiences between colleagues and to expand the audience of our viewers, presenting the best examples of productions of “proven” value. For example, our production of Britten’s Turn of the Screw went to the stage of English National Opera and was enthusiastically received by audiences in London.
It is noteworthy that Bartok’s opera is sung in Hungarian, a language that is relatively rare used in the genre of opera. The language is quite difficult to learn and pronounce, so it is particularly important how well soloists will be able to reveal its beauty and charm of sound.

The story of Duke Bluebeard, the perfidious and cruel seducer who killed his wives, is one of the oldest European myths, along with the story of Don Juan. One can debate whether the historical prototype for Bluebeard was the French Marshal Gilles de Rais, a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc who was executed in 1440, and whether he he did actually have a blue beard (in those days beardless people who shaved "to the blue" – i.e.very closely – were called "bluebeards"), but thanks to Charles Perraultґs fairytale, written in 1697, the image of the cruel duke became quite popular with writers and composers. In 1901 the celebrated symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck offered his own interpretation of the theme in "Ariana et Barbe-Bleue", and on the basis of this play the Hungarian author Bela Balazs wrote the libretto for an opera, which was used by the composer Bela Bartok. Besides the enigmatic, mystic theme, Bartok also incorporated the national character of Balazsґs verses – the librettoґs eight-line stanzas go back to traditional Szek ballads. "Bluebeardґs Castle", Bartokґs only opera, was written between March and October 1911, and was initially rejected by the official jury of the National Theatre in Budapest. Its premiere took place at the Budapest Opera only seven years later, on 24 May 1918, and aroused enormous interest. Bartokґs friend and fellow-composer Zoltan Kodaly wrote: "His (Bartokґs) recent opponents should willy-nilly recognise the richness of his fantasy, the originality of his orchestration, the harmony of colours and themes, the integrity of his thinking [...] Bartokґs music is marked by profound sociability, directness and the very height of culture. It stands before us as a single concentrated whole, and bears virtually no trace of borrowing or imitation".
The action of the opera is constructed on the dialogues between the Duke and his young wife Judith, who entreats him to reveal to her the secrets of the seven doors in the castle. Seven symphonic tableaux, each of which illustrates the Dukeґs crimes, portray sombre visions. The seven musical episodes are striking for the pictorial power of the orchestra and the visibility of the musical images: I – a torture chamber with chains and hooks, II – an armoury with traces of blood, III – a storeroom with gold, IV – flowering gardens and lilies in blood, V – boundless meadows and mountains, VI – a crystal lake of tears, VII – the abode of the imprisoned wives. In the finale Judith goes through the seventh door, and all the life in her perishes under the weight of the crown and the jewels placed on her by the Duke. All around is dark and gloomy. The Duke disappears in the black darkness.
The music of the opera is very colourful and expressive, which makes it ideal for a concert performance. With the use of orchestral timbres and expressive intonations based on Hungarian folk tunes, Bartok subtly demonstrates the emotional state of the characters. The music loosely follows the subtle nuances of the poetic text.
"Bluebeardґs Castle" can be interpreted in various ways: one can see in it social pathos, a symbolic reflection of the disasters and wars of the early 20th century. However, it is probably more correct in relation to this work to speak of the shady aspects and dark abysses of the human character. In this respect Bartokґs opera is the start of a direct road to the future psychoanalytical research and to many musical and literary masterpieces of the 20th, and also 21st, century.
Yegor Kovalevsky