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Gustave Kobbé, in his indispensable Complete Opera Book, first published in 1922, assigns just two pages to Duke Bluebeard's Castle, noting that the opera is "one of the most impressive of [Bartók's] early works".
Now, we view Bartók's creation as one of the finest operatic compositions of its century, though it is a famously difficult work to stage successfully. The static nature of the storyline (two characters converse in a castle, seven doors are opened, one by one) is not so much the problem, for Bartók's score is of unrelenting and gripping psychological intensity.
Rather it is the rich score itself, with its use of folk music, coupled to strong suggestions of Wagner, Strauss and Debussy, that proves most problematic. What staging could match its unparalleled, vivid scenic painting (Willy Decker's production, seen at the Royal Opera House last year, did come tantalisingly close however)?
This disc from Naxos was recorded from two live concert performances at Poole in May of this year. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's superb playing is not captured in the most detailed or luminous sound, but the febrile intensity of the performance is successfully transmitted. Conductor Marin Alsop excellently judges Bartók's fine balance of glowing lyricism and corrupting violence. Each door opens momentously, the fiery violin tremolo of the torture chamber searingly powerful, the Fifth Door's harmonically and dramatically climactic modulation to C major awesome, the victorious organ bestially bursting from the jagged texture.
Both mezzo Andrea Meláth and bass Gustáv Belácek make a powerful sound (the former hitting a notably vibrant top C at the opening of the Fifth Door) but, at times, I found Belácek's delivery to be slightly blustering, lacking a seductive charm or ironic nobility. Both singers do, however, deliver the text impeccably and react convincingly to one another. At this year's BBC Proms, the problem with Christoph von Dohnányi's account of the opera was the placing of soloists either side of the podium, making even eye contact, so crucial in this psychological, Freudian drama, impossible. The work became a picturesque succession of opening doors, through which two characters wandered, separately. Here, even on disc, one can sense the intimacy of the character conflict. Meláth illuminates the character of Judith particularly successfully, her hushed whispers of enraptured wonderment particularly memorable.
Perhaps Alsop does not quite shape the score as circularly as would be preferable, but the detailed orchestral playing always sustains the pace. The live concert performances garnered excellent reviews, and we must count ourselves lucky that a recording has been made.
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