Bluebeard's Castle: Op. 11: Original Edition, 1921

by Béla Bartók

The first vocal work and the only opera written by Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Bluebeard's Castle is considered the greatest Hungarian opera. Though it is concentrated into a single act and has only two characters, it burns with a fully operatic intensity — "a musical volcano," as Zoltán Kodály called it, "that erupts for 60 minutes of compressed tragedy."
The libretto, a symbolist drama by the distinguished writer Béla Balázs, takes off from Perrault's fairy tale to present a psychological case study of a nervous bride trying fully to enter the world of her new husband — a darkly charismatic man into whose life she is confident she will be able to bring warmth, brightness, and love. He warns her not to ask what lies behind the seven doors in his gloomy castle, but after insisting that her love gives her the right to know everything about him, she learns the horrifying truth about the man she has married.
An early (1911) work of great assurance and promise, this short opera will be a revelation to listeners who know only Bartók's later music. It has a wholly different sound and, in its preoccupation with textures and timbre, shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss. Bluebeard's Castle is the composer at his most sensual — far from the more angular Bartók of later years.
This new edition of a long-neglected classic has been reproduced directly from a rare copy of the 1921 vocal score, featuring a piano reduction by the composer and a German translation by Wilhelm Ziegler. For this edition, Stanley Appelbaum has provided an informative Introduction and a full English synopsis based on the original Hungarian text. The result is an inexpensive, indispensable performance aid for the vocal soloist, speaker, and rehearsal pianist.

Genres: Music

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

About the author

Works, including the music for the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) and Concerto for Orchestra (1943), of Hungarian pianist and composer Béla Bartók combine east European folk with dissonant harmonies.

Since 1920, small childhood hometown of Béla Viktor János Bartók in the kingdom within Austria constituted Sânnicolau Mare or great Saint Nicholas, Romania.

From his mother, he got his first lessons, but from the age of 18 years in 1899, he studied under a protege of the great late Franz Liszt. At the royal academy in Budapest, he met Zoltán Kodály, lifelong friend. Kodály, Claude Debussy of France, Johannes Brahms, and old Magyar melodies influenced Bartók, who met Richard Strauss in 1902. Indeed, Bartók of founded study of ethnomusicology, a passion in which his friend Kodály joined him, studying and incorporating much country into his own.

Reviews

[bobita · Rating 5 out of 5]

showstopping, lifechanging, amazing

[Neo Fernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Opera, "Bluebeard's Castle", published in 1911 by Bela Balazs and written by Bela Bartok, they incorporate a work of literature and musical sense throughout the whole movie, to build a common factor of curiosity, patriarchal authority, and suspense. Bluebeard's Castle was published three years prior to World War I in which the society was facing economic and political challenges during its time. This not only reflected the character's in the opera yet it reflected what we were living around in the early 1900's. Throughout the parallelism and the symbolism we see, sends the audience a message of what this whole opera fulfills in which we will later discuss.
To begin, this opera contains two characters by the name of Bluebeard and his wife Judith. The opera begins with Judith running away from the darkness to be with Bluebeard and his castle. These two characters meet at night which will signify importance later in the opera. However, as Judith enters the castle, she's presented with the castle in a state of darkness as she wants to bring light and joy into the building. By doing so, she begins her curiosity and notices these 7 locked doors which was very intriguing for her to open. Despite these 7 doors, she's heard many rumors that Bluebeard was a psychopath and many more. She wanted to find herself as she persuades Bluebeard to open the first door following the rest of the doors by expressing her "love" to him. By doing so, Bluebeard falls for her actions and opens the doors. Every door that is opened shows what Bluebeard really is as blood happens to drip from most of the doors, having a lake of tears, and his own riches. This make Judith feel more iffy of the fact that Bluebeard lives up to the rumors. As the last door opens, she notices 3 girls which are his wives. The first represents the morning, the next afternoon, the third evening, and lastly fulfill her spot which is the "night". By Bluebeard meeting Judith at night, signifies that she's the wife of the night as she enters the throne of where all the other wives are standing. Not only she agrees on entering as the "night" wife, the audience therefore identifies Bluebeard that the rumors were true and that the rooms that she's open were the rooms that the previous 3 wives dealt with.
Throughout this whole opera, symbolism is present in most of the scenes. One symbolism is the contrast of white and red though-out the opera with Judith wearing white while red represents the blood that Bluebeard contains. We can also see what the lake represented as it was the tears that the 3 wives all obtained in which it accumulated overtime, reflecting Bluebeard's savageness. Many themes fulfill this opera as patriarchal authority overrides women and how curiosity can bring you to a conclusion.
From what I learned in this opera is that curiosity can bring you in favor of a lot of concepts. Whether it can be bad or good, it will make an individual have a sense of realization when everything is done. I also noticed that Bluebeard serves as a Pentheus outlook as to Judith being a Dionysus. These it greatly seen thoughout the whole opera as Judith is open to reveal the unknown as to Bluebeard, he is to secluded and trying to keep things the way he wants it to be.