October 1: Opera and Nationalism
Posted by Charles T. Downey at 10:06 PM |
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Béla Bartók (1881–1945), Bluebeard's Castle (Budapest Opera, 1918)
Libretto (in Hungarian only): Béla Balázs (1884–1949), film critic and writer. Later, he was assistant director to Leni Riefenstahl on her film Das blaue Licht (1932). His Jewish heritage drove him from Germany shortly thereafter, when Riefenstahl began working for the Nazi Party.
From ionarts (Bartók's Bluebeard, September 20):
Tim Ashley's article (Bloody chambers, August 28) for The Guardian is a nice introduction to some of the problems of Béla Bartók's one-act A Kékszakállú herceg vára (Duke Bluebeard's Castle), a troubling and fascinating work. It also has some good information about the historical background of the legend on which the opera is based:
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), Kát'a Kabanová (premiered at the National Theater in Brno, November 23, 1921).
Libretto (Czech with Italian translation): the composer, after Alexander N. Ostrovsky, Groza (English translation, The Storm), translated by V. Cervinka. (Tchaikovsky composed an Overture to The Storm, op. 76, in 1864. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden is also derived from the play.)
This opera will be broadcast live on the radio from the Metropolitan Opera on December 25, 2004.
Other resources:
Available at Amazon:
Béla Bartók, Bluebeard's Castle, Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer |
Libretto (in Hungarian only): Béla Balázs (1884–1949), film critic and writer. Later, he was assistant director to Leni Riefenstahl on her film Das blaue Licht (1932). His Jewish heritage drove him from Germany shortly thereafter, when Riefenstahl began working for the Nazi Party.
From ionarts (Bartók's Bluebeard, September 20):
Tim Ashley's article (Bloody chambers, August 28) for The Guardian is a nice introduction to some of the problems of Béla Bartók's one-act A Kékszakállú herceg vára (Duke Bluebeard's Castle), a troubling and fascinating work. It also has some good information about the historical background of the legend on which the opera is based:There is no consensus even as to its origins, which have been traced to two very different sources, though both, significantly, have a serial killer at their centre. The first deals with Comar, a spurious fifth-century Breton chieftain, who murdered his wives in turn, when each found evidence of what had happened to her predecessor. The second concerns the historical figure of Gilles de Rais, who was executed by the Inquisition in Nantes in October 1440. At his trial, De Rais stood accused of "heresy, sacrilege and offences against nature". During its course, however, he confessed to the sexual assault and murder of more than 140 children, crimes so obscene as to defy belief, though historians have also questioned - and continue to question - whether the charges were fabricated and his confession forced.Here is the text of Charles Perrault's second edition of the Conte de Barbe Bleue (in French or in English), or the original edition with morality (in French only). The opera was performed recently at the Proms (Prom 69, September 7), with Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet as Judith and John Tomlinson as Bluebeard, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The program began with the British premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Orion (see Andrew Clements's appreciative review of the concert on September 9, for The Guardian). If you're in London, the Hungarian National Opera and Ballet will perform the opera (along with Bartók's ballet The Miraculous Mandarin) at Sadler's Wells, from October 4 to 6.
Other stories about De Rais were soon in circulation, however. We know him to have been estranged from his wife, Catherine, but it was soon rumoured that he killed her when she found incriminating evidence in his torture chamber. Then there was the question of his beard, so black that in a certain light it looked blue. It was said that De Rais's actions appalled even the devil so that the latter marked him with the blue beard to distinguish him from all other men.
The rumours surrounding De Rais were doubtless the source of Charles Perrault's tale, published in 1695. Here we find the legend's essential elements: Bluebeard handing his keys to his wife with instructions that she may use all but one in his absence; her breaking of his prohibition only to discover his former wives' bodies; the bloodstained key that betrays her actions; and Bluebeard's determination to kill her as punishment for her curiosity.
Available at Amazon:
Leoš Janáček, Kát'a Kabanová, Gabriela Benacková, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles Mackerras |
Libretto (Czech with Italian translation): the composer, after Alexander N. Ostrovsky, Groza (English translation, The Storm), translated by V. Cervinka. (Tchaikovsky composed an Overture to The Storm, op. 76, in 1864. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden is also derived from the play.)
This opera will be broadcast live on the radio from the Metropolitan Opera on December 25, 2004.
Other resources:
- Janáček and Kát'a Kabanová (San Diego Operapaedia)
- Leoš Janáček and a Brief Look at Czech Music (San Diego Operapaedia)
- Lynne Walker, Sir Charles Mackerras: In from the cold (The Independent, September 13), interview with the British conductor who "single-handedly revived the music of the Czech composer Janacek. Now he is aiming do the same for Martinu."
- Overview of Janáček's operas
- Kyoung-Hee Jung, Janacek-Kat'a Kabanova: Folk Music and Nationalism in the Opera
- Dr. Downey, Janáček, Kát'a Kabanová
- Grace Cho, Overview of Bluebeard's Castle
Available at Amazon:
Carl S. Leafstedt, Inside Bluebeard's Castle (1999) | 
John Tyrrell, Leoš Janáček: Kát'a Kabanová (1982) |
