Second Bill: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Bartok’s only opera – Duke Bluebeard’s Castle – is an unsettling, strange one-act work. Bluebeard’s new wife Judith journeys into his castle, insisting on opening each and every one of the seven locked doors she discovers inside. At each entrance, she discovers a treasure, and blood. As the treasures grow greater and the blood starts to flow, we prepare for the inevitable worst: the dead bodies of the previous wives that must surely be behind the final door. We are in for a surprise: the wives behind the final door are very much alive, and ready to do Bluebeard’s bidding. In a stunning reveal, Bluebeard sings that their blood is what keeps the castle alive. One takes a step back and realizes that the mythic frame is an elaborate metaphor. The unrelenting tyrannical patriarch bleeds dry everything he touches, transforming love into empty, hollow corpses. The coup de grace of this production by Daniel Kramer is the reveal behind the fifth door, in which Bluebeard sings of the riches and wealth of his kingdom. As he sings about gold and treasure, he reveals a vast cabinet dormitory of children. This of course makes blatant the hidden subtext of the work. It felt somewhat manipulative and jarring at the time, but some time after seeing the performance, I realize that it is what allowed me to understand the construct of the story. I am reminded that creating an exact experience for an audience is the highest form of our craft.


(posted by Ed)