Inside Bluebeard's Castle: Music and Drama in Béla Bartók's Opera

by Carl S. Leafstedt

The first full-length examination of Bartók's 1911 opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle , this is an authoritative study of one of the twentieth century's enduring operatic works. Leafstedt adopts a broad approach to the study of opera by introducing, in addition to the expected music-dramatic analysis, topics of a more interdisciplinary nature that are new to the field of Bartók studies.

Genres: Music

254 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about a great work by one of my favorite composers. Although the book is not very long, it is wonderfully thorough, touching on just about every aspect of the opera. Leafstedt gives details about the background and history of the work as both a play and an opera, a good section-by-section musical analysis, and interesting insights into the thematic and symbolic content of the work.