Bluebeard's Castle
Duke Bluebeard's Castle (
Bluebeard's Castle was composed in 1911 (with modifications made in 1912 and a new ending added in 1917) and first performed on May 24, 1918 in
Composition history
Balázs originally conceived the libretto for his roommate
Little is known about the Ferenc Erkel Prize other than that Bluebeard's Castle did not win. The Rózsavölgyi judges, after reviewing the composition, decided that the work (with only two characters and a single location) was not dramatic enough to be considered in the category for which it was entered: theatrical music. It is thought that the panel of judges who were to look at the musical (rather than the theatrical) aspects of the competition entries never saw Bartók's entry.
In 1913 Balázs produced a spoken performance at which Bartók played some piano pieces on a separate part of the program. A 1915 letter to Bartók's young wife, Márta, (to whom he dedicated the opera) ends:
Performance history
The success of the ballet
Bluebeard's Castle was first performed in Italy at the
The opera was first performed in the United States in a student production at
Bluebeard's Castle received its French premiere on 17 April 1950 in a radio broadcast on
The London première took place on 16 January 1957 at the Rudolf Steiner Theatre during the English tour of Scottish composer
Roles
Bartók includes the Castle on the dramatis personæ page.
Synopsis
The basic plot is loosely based on the folk tale "
- Place: A huge, dark hall in a castle, with seven locked doors.
- Time: Not defined.
Judith and Bluebeard arrive at his castle, which is all dark. Bluebeard asks Judith if she wants to stay and even offers her an opportunity to leave, but she decides to stay. Judith insists that all the doors be opened, to allow light to enter into the forbidding interior, insisting further that her demands are based on her love for Bluebeard. Bluebeard refuses, saying that they are private places not to be explored by others, and asking Judith to love him but ask no questions. Judith persists, and eventually prevails over his resistance.
The first door opens to reveal a torture chamber, stained with blood. Repelled, but then intrigued, Judith pushes on. Behind the second door is a storehouse of weapons, and behind the third a storehouse of riches. Bluebeard urges her on. Behind the fourth door is a secret garden of great beauty; behind the fifth, a window onto Bluebeard's vast kingdom. All is now sunlit, but blood has stained the riches, watered the garden, and grim clouds throw blood-red shadows over Bluebeard's kingdom.
Bluebeard pleads with her to stop: the castle is as bright as it can get, and will not get any brighter, but Judith refuses to be stopped after coming this far, and opens the penultimate sixth door, as a shadow passes over the castle. This is the first room that has not been somehow stained with blood; a silent silvery lake is all that lies within, "a lake of tears". Bluebeard begs Judith to simply love him, and ask no more questions. The last door must be shut forever. But she persists, asking him about his former wives, and then accusing him of having murdered them, suggesting that their blood was the blood everywhere, that their tears were those that filled the lake, and that their bodies lie behind the last door. At this, Bluebeard hands over the last key.
Behind the door are Bluebeard's three former wives, but still alive, dressed in crowns and jewellery. They emerge silently, and Bluebeard, overcome with emotion, prostrates himself before them and praises each in turn, finally turning to Judith and beginning to praise her as his fourth wife. She is horrified, begs him to stop, but it is too late. He dresses her in the jewellery they wear, which she finds exceedingly heavy. Her head drooping under the weight, she follows the other wives along a beam of moonlight through the seventh door. It closes behind her, and Bluebeard is left alone as all fades to total darkness.
Staging
Traditionally, the set is a single dark hall surrounded by the seven doors around the perimeter. As each door is opened, a stream of symbolically colored light comes forth (except in the case of the sixth door, for which the hall is actually darkened). The symbolic colors of the seven doors are as follows:
- (The torture chamber) Blood-red
- (The armory) Yellowish-red
- (The treasury) Golden
- (The garden) Bluish-green
- (The kingdom) White (the stage directions read: "in a gleaming torrent, the light streams in", "blue mountains")
- (The pool of tears) Darkness; the main hall is darkened, as if a shadow had passed over
- (The wives) Silvery (stage directions: "silver like the moon")
These lighting instructions are notably ignored in the movie (not staged) version {reference} of the opera, for which more elaborate, literal sets were constructed.
The slow orchestral introduction to the work is often preceded or overlapped by a spoken prologue, (also by Balázs, but published as "Prologue of the Bard" independently of the play). This poses to the audience the questions "Where is the stage? Is it outside, or inside?" as well as offering a warning to pay careful attention to the events about to unfold. The prologue warns the audience that the morals of the tale can apply to the real world as well as to that of Bluebeard and Judith. The character of the bard (or "regős" in the Hungarian language) is traditional in Hungarian folk music, and the words of the prologue (notably its opening lines "Haj, regő, rejtem") are associated with traditional Hungarian "regősénekek" (Regős songs), which Bartók had previously studied. The prologue is frequently omitted from performances; to some it seems heavy-handed and unnecessary, while to others it fits well with the reworked folktale atmosphere.
The stage directions call also for occasional ghostly sighs that seemingly emanate from the castle itself when some of the doors are opened. These have been implemented differently by different productions, sometimes clearly instrumentally, sometimes vocally and sometimes not easily identifiable.
Music and instrumentation
The most salient characteristic of the music from Bluebeard's Castle is the importance of the
The vocal parts are very challenging due to the highly chromatic and speech-rhythm-inflected style that Bartók uses. For non-native speakers, the Hungarian-language libretto can also be difficult to master. These reasons, coupled with the static effect of the stage action, combine to make staged performances of the opera a comparative rarity; it more often appears in concert form.
To support the psychological undertones, Bartók calls for a large orchestra. The instrumentation is as notated below:
4
Eight offstage brass players are also called for (4 trumpets and 4 trombones).
Translations
The original German translation by Wilhelm Ziegler appears in the 1921 first edition of the vocal score. In 1963 a revised singing translation by Wilhelm Ziegler replaced it. The English translation printed in the 1963 miniature score is by Christopher Hassall. The one in the full score is by
Recordings
See also
Notes
References
- Antokoletz, Elliott. Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók: Trauma, Gender, and the Unfolding of the Unconscious, with the collaboration of Juana Canabal Antokoletz. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510383-1
- Honti, Rita. Principles of Pitch Organization in Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Studia musicologica Universitatis Helsingiensis, 14 [13]. Diss. Helsinki University, Helsinki. 2006. ISBN 952-10-3331-2 (2nd ed. 2007.)
- Kroó, György. 1981. "Data on the Genesis of Duke Bluebeard's Castle". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 23:79–123. (Includes facsimile of 1912 ending, amongst other things.)
- Leafstedt, Carl S.: Inside Bluebeard's Castle. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510999-6
External links
- Hungarian libretto
- The Birth of Cinema from the Spirit of Opera (includes literal trans. of prolog)
- Duke Bluebeard's Castle at the Internet Movie Database — the 1989 Prix Italia winning BBC production with Robert Lloyd in the title role
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