Program

Béla Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle

I. Prologue and Introduction

II. First Door - Bluebeard's Torture Chamber

III. Second Door - the Armoury

IV. Third Door - the Treasury

V. Fourth Door - the Garden

VI. Fifth Door - Bluebeard's Vast and Beautiful Kingdom

VII. Sixth Door - the Lake of Tears

VIII. Seventh Door - Bluebeard's Wives

Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle

Romeo Castellucci (staging), Teodor Currentzis (conductor) — With Mika Kares (Count Bluebeard), Ausrine Stundyte (Judith) et Helena Rasker (Prolog)

Subscribers

Cast

Romeo Castellucci — Stage director, set designer, costume designer, lighting designer

Cindy Van Acker — Choreographer

Mika Kares — Duke Bluebeard

Aušrinė Stundytė — Judith

Helena Rasker — Prolog

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester — Orchestra

Teodor Currentzis — Conductor

Program notes

Stage director Romeo Castellucci crafts an implacable, thrillingly dark mise en scène of Bartók's lone opera, Bluebeard's Castle, at the 2022 Salzburg Festival. Shadows constantly threaten to devour the title character (Mika Kares) and his wife Judith (Aušrinė Stundytė), newlyweds who have yet to confront the gargantuan secrets between them. Illuminated solely by flames blazing atop special structures upstage and their reflections on the lake of tears, the two lovers — at Judith's insistence — open every door of Bluebeard's castle one by one, plumbing the darkest depths of their condemned souls. In the pit, the fiery Teodor Currentzis and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester bring out all the brilliance of the Hungarian composer's evocative, bewitching orchestral writing, making this haunting Bluebeard one for the books.