Opera Review: Blue Beard's Castle.

My grand daughter and I saw the opera at the Holland Center.  Blue Beard's Castle was written by Béla Bartók with the libretto by Béla Balász, with just two singers, and the Bard who introduced the opera.  Is the story without or within?   The original was written in Hungarian.  This is probably what they were singing, or German.  The words showed up above the singers in English as they sang.  Ryan McKinney sang baritone the Duke and Michelle DeYoung soprano the wife.  Her hair reminded my of the character the Bride of Frankenstein.  The orchestra was conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya.  The light projections were provided by David Murakami.  This is a collaboration with Opera Omaha.

What a story.  The story is very macabre.  The couple, Blue Beard and Judith elope and he brings her home for the first time.  The castle is dark.  She insists on opening the house to let in more light.  She opens one room at a time.  The first is the dungeon and torture room.  You see this through the use of lighting.  Then you see the instruments of torture are covered with blood.  The second room is the armory with many weapons.  Again they are covered with blood (shown by dripping blood on the screen and red light.)  The third room is the treasury with gold and jewels.  Then again the blood.  The fourth room is the garden.  The projectionists showed this in black and white, then also going to blood.  The house is becoming lighter, but the new wife insists on opening all the doors.  The husband keeps asking her not to open them all.  

The fifth door is the husbands many kingdoms.  In this case the lights are on the audience, looking far off because his lands and kingdoms are vast.  But again everything turns red.  The sixth door is water, which are actually tears.  Then we come to the seventh door.  The husband says don't open it.  It is the room with all the former wives.  Did he kill his former lives or are they living in the room.  The husband sings of the morning, noontime and evening wives.  She is the night time wife he met at 12 a.m.  The opera ends with  darkness taking over.  

The story has me thinking.  Is the story without or within?  I think it is both.  It is without, but we interpret the story within and each come to our individual conclusions.  The lighting was  ery eerie.  As thins got darker they but a light on the conductor and her shadow flashed upon the wall.  It was. very effective.

The venue did not allow pictures, so I stole a couple from Facebook from the Omaha Symphony.

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