Who was the composer?
Béla Bartók, a 20th-century composer from Hungary.By the age of four, Bartók was already a prodigy. His mother recalled him playing 40 different folk songs on the piano with just one finger. He began composing at age nine, and by 11 he gave his first public piano recital (using all 10 fingers).
He attended the Budapest Royal Academy of Music, and emerged as an in-demand pianist and conductor.
Together with Zoltán Kodály, he took an early recording device into the Hungarian countryside to collect and record local folk songs. He would draw on these songs for the rest of his life, claiming the extremes of variation in Hungarian folk music reflected his own nature.
Bartók was a prolific composer, working across a dizzying array of styles. Sometimes critics were baffled, sometimes impressed. It took the world some time to catch up to his genius. Many of his works, including Bluebeard’s Castle, are now considered masterpieces.
He escaped World War II in Europe, moving to New York. He grieved for his homeland, until his death of leukaemia-related complications in 1945. Béla Jnr, a son born of his first marriage, arranged for his ashes to return to Hungary in 1988.
What happens in the story?
Judith enters Bluebeard’s castle, and wonders if the rumours about him are true. The castle is dark and the walls are wet. Having just left her bridegroom and family, Judith declares she will flood Bluebeard's castle with light and warmth.She sees seven locked doors, and demands Bluebeard open each in turn. He reluctantly agrees. Light floods into the castle as she opens each door. But everything she sees is soaked in blood.
As she reaches the final two doors, Bluebeard urges her to leave them shut. But she will not back down. What is behind the seventh door? And can Judith escape the fate that awaits behind it?
Something to listen out for
The music helps you imagine stepping into a dim stone castle. It begins in silence, moving through dark, oppressive tones. It progresses to a climax where Judith opens the fifth door and floods everything with light, and returns to silence once more as the opera ends.As the tension grows, like in any good horror film, the music conveys the mood. Notes are higher, faster, and more dissonant. As the dissonance between husband and wife grows, so does the dissonance in the music — and it remains unresolved. Notice how the music feels more tragic than terrifying as Judith progresses towards the seventh door. How does that impact how you interpret the ending?
Listen out for the famous blood motif, which you’ll hear whenever Judith notices blood in the castle. It’s a haunting trill on a semitone, which is the closest distance between notes in Western music.
Opera Australia
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Website: https://opera.org.au/
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