Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle”

Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle
Saturday, May 21, 2022 |  7:30 PM | $5-35
NEW LOCATION – Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder

April Fredrick

 

 

  • BARTÓK Bluebeard’s Castle (1911) arr. by van Tuinen/Karcher-Young

Kenneth Woods, Conductor
April Fredrick, Judith
Gustav Andreassen, Bluebeard
Colorado MahlerFest Chamber Orchestra

Click here for the original Hungarian libretto and an English translation.

Bartók’s opera is based on a libretto by the Jewish-Hungarian writer and critic, Béla Balázs. Balázs wrote the libretto for their mutual friend, Zoltán Kodály. Bartók was spurred to set the libretto by a competition, which he lost. The opera languished without a performance for several years, causing Bartók to lament to his wife, Márta, to whom he dedicated the opera: “Now I know that I will never hear it in this life. You asked me to play it for you—I am afraid I would not be able to get through it. Still I’ll try so that we may mourn it together.”

Gustav Andreassen

In Balázs’ and Bartók’s re-telling of the Bluebeard legend, the title character is, in Bartók’s words, “not a murderer. The images of the Castle are allegorical pictures of the soul.” Bartók also said that the work was a “soul ballade” which expresses “the tragedy of a soul destined to be alone.” The work mourns the way in which “the holy feeling of love dies by becoming every-day. His loves live, but no longer in his life.”

What to Expect

Mountain View United Methodist is a beautiful building located in the Frasier Meadows neighborhood. There is plenty of free parking in the lot on the west side of the building and the surrounding surface streets. The main doors are on the west side of the building just south of the sanctuary (and north of the school wing). You’ll enter there and make your way through a spacious lobby to the sanctuary. The church holds about 250 people with chairs on the main floor and pews in the balcony.

As with all of our concerts, you are free to dress up but it is certainly not required.

The opera is about one hour long but you can expect some introductory remarks from Kenneth Woods. He’s likely to explain a bit about the plot and the music Bartók wrote. Although this is an unstaged, concert performance, we are planning some lighting effects. The orchestra will be about 30 musicians.