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Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Bartók's spine-chilling one-act opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle has become a 20th century masterpiece and has satisfied Bartók's dream of establishing a true Hungarian-language opera.

In 1911, Bela Bartók submitted an opera to a Hungarian National Competition. A one-act work, this hour-long adaptation of a Charles Perrault fairy tale didn't win the contest, but nonetheless, Duke Bluebeard's Castle has gone on to become a genuine 20th-century masterpiece, and Bartók's dream of establishing a true Hungarian-language opera has been realised.

Librettist Béla Balázs, influenced by his peer Endre Ady, embraced the French symbolists as a model for his work. Balázs' source of the Bluebeard story was the symbolist poet Maeterlinck's Ariane et Barbe-bleue, an adaptation of Perrault's fairy tale. Maeterlinck's version was originally considered, and then rejected, by Grieg. It was written for the poet's companion, Georgette Leblanc, an actress and singer. Maeterlinck even enigmatically claimed that the story was based on actual experiences of Leblanc. Balázs' play, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, was first published in the journal, Színjáték (The Drama), in June 1910. The author dedicated the play to both Bartók and Kodály, fully expecting Kodály to set it to music, but it was Bartók who was drawn to the story.

Bartók's spine-chilling one-act opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle teels the story of  Judith, the young new wife of the menacing Duke Bluebeard who  unlocks the seven forbidden doors in her husband’s castle and is eventually confronted by the women he has already loved and murdered. Bartók’s powerful, gripping and accessible music brilliantly conveys the growing tension and impending doom that pervades the opera.