Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Béla Bartók
A breathtaking vocal head-to-head performed here by two giants of the opera world.
Dates
Elīna Garanča | Judith
Christian Van Horn | Bluebeard
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Lio Kuokman | direction
First part
Bartók Allegro barbaro, orchestral arrangement by Giancarlo Chiaramello
Kodály Dances of Galánta
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Sung in Hungarian, with French/English subtitles
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Approx. running time : 1h30
About
When Bartók composed Bluebeard’s Castle, he was at the crossroads of his discovery of the music of Debussy and his ethnomusicological research into folk repertoires. His only opera is a successful fusion of these two influences. Structured into seven scenes, each corresponding to one of the doors of the castle, Bluebeard’s Castle is a powerful work, an existential drama in which the emotion of love is laid bare in a concise form. But this economy is merely superficial to anyone familiar with the orchestral scale and the vocal feats which this work demands. A mesmerising and gripping head-to-head, which is a metaphor for loneliness and the difficulties of romantic relationships.
Coréalisation Les Grandes Voix | Théâtre des Champs-Élysées