Bluebeard's Castle

Address

Kjøpmannsgata 48,
Trondheim

Bluebeard's Castle

Description

Conductor Adam Hickox Bluebeard - Gerald Finley Judith - Irene Roberts Assistant conductor Edward Reeve Programme Sergei Rachmaninov, (1873–1943) The Isle of the Dead, symphonic poem, Op. 29 (1909) Béla Bartók / Béla Balász Bluebeard's Castle About the performance We present a concert version of the opera Bluebeard's Castle. The tale of Bluebeard, his newest, young wife, Judith, and the seven locked doors of his dark castle is a one-act opera about hidden secrets and curiosity, about a quest to know and understand, and about what can happen when you pull aside the last curtain. Judith and Bluebeard arrive at the castle, and when she meets the closed doors she demands that they be opened, one by one, to let light and air into this oppressive darkness. In encountering the rooms within, she uncovers Bluebeard's history, with memories of an unhappy childhood and an ever more gloomy adult life. In the last room she finds the remnants of his three previous wives, and she ends up following them, as the door closes behind her and Bluebeard is left standing in his self-chosen darkness… Béla Bartók's unique music in this one-act opera supports the action masterfully, as the motifs develop from small seeds into a complex whole, and mirror the psychological drama in the relationship between Bluebeard and Judith. The music is glittering, dark, shimmering and menacing, and the full depth of the orchestra brings to life the dramatic inner conflicts of the main characters. We begin with Rachmaninov's tone poem The Isle of the Dead, a work full of shimmering tonal colour within an otherwise gloomy orchestral palette.