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Bluebeard's Castle: Enter at Your Peril

Tom Service intrepidly explores Bluebeard's Castle, Bartok's one-act symbolist opera, first performed in 1918 with just two characters: Bluebeard and his newest wife Judith.

Tom Service intrepidly explores Bluebeard's Castle - the one-act Symbolist opera by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok first performed in 1918 which features just two characters: Duke Bluebeard and his fourth wife Judith. Newly married, he brings her home to his murky castle for the very first time, where she finds a torture chamber, armoury, treasury, garden, and lake of tears. And unfortunately for Judith, it's not long before she discovers just what happened to those first three wives...

With Harvard Professor of Folklore and Mythology Maria Tatar.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Fri 17 Mar 2023 16:30
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Béla Bartók

    Duke Bluebeard's castle - opera in 1 act Sz.48

    Performer: Anne Sofie von Otter. Performer: John Tomlinson. Performer: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Bernard Haitink.
    • Warner Classics.
    • 0724355616258.

  • Jacques Offenbach

    Barbe-bleue - operetta in 3 acts

    Performer: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • PHILIPS.
    • 411-476-2.

  • Paul Dukas

    Ariane et Barbe-bleue - opera in 3 acts

    Performer: Ariane Lori Phillips. Performer: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Leon Botstein.
    • TELARC.
    • CD80680.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 Mar 2023 17:00
    BBC Radio 3
  • Fri 17 Mar 2023 16:30
    BBC Radio 3

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