It’s a difficult one, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle – where are you going to fit a sixty-minute opera with only two singers? It is often done on radio and there are many versions available on CD but full-blown stage productions are rare, it being more often performed as a concert.
The story is very Gothic, very Edgar Allan Poe. The action takes place in . . . err . . . Bluebeard’s Castle where the evil duke returns with his new bride, Judith. She is shocked by the gloomy menacing atmosphere, the damp stone walls and the absence of natural light. But most of all she is intrigued and frightened by the seven locked doors which surround the scene. The basic story is how Judith persuades her husband to let her unlock them, one by one.
The first one reveals a gruesome torture chamber and the second, an armoury. Not many laughs there then. Things do get better and subsequent doors reveal a hoard of treasure, a beautiful garden and Bluebeard’s vast domain, but all is tarnished with blood. Behind the seventh door . . . but I won’t spoil it for you. You’ll have to imagine it just as we had to as there were no doors and the sighs that should accompany and emphasise the opening of each one was not evident. And that’s not all that was missing.
Firstly, I have to say that the singing from Thomas Oliemans and Deidre Angenent was flawless and that Orkest PhilZuid, under the baton of Duncan Ward, played beautifully and I have no criticism of them. But I have to say I was disappointed by the production.
The huge orchestra was on stage and the action took place in front of it. The paltry décor, supposed to be representing a shadowy castle, consisted of a few bits of cheap 1970s G-Plan type domestic furniture and was more like the lounge of a suburban semi than the lair of a cruel tyrant. Equally, no effort was made with costumes and the singers were dressed as though they had just walked in off the street. Consequently no atmosphere was created and the whole thing, which should have been quite scary, was as dark and menacing as an early episode of Friends. I would have preferred a straightforward concert performance and, while I’m at it, it would have been nice to have a real actor performing the prologue and setting the scene rather than Mr Ward, the conductor.
Had I closed my eyes for an hour or so I would have come away quite content but sadly I didn’t and left the building feeling rather disappointed and short-changed. Michael Hasted 10th November at Amare in The Hague
