Bluebeard's Castle / La Damoiselle Elue

The story begins with the Bluebeard bringing his new bride home to his castle for the first time. The castle is shrouded in darkness. There are seven locked doors Judith is eager to bring light and hope to Bluebeard and his castle. She insists that all of the doors be opened. Reluctantly, Bluebeard allows Judith to open the doors. Each door contains different items and floods the hallway with a different type of light. In her exploration of the castle, Judith learns of both the good and bad aspects of Bluebeard’s Castle which represent aspects of his personality.

In his stage direction, Bartok gives careful instructions as to the appropriate lighting of the stage as each door is opened:

1. (The torture chamber) Blood-red
2. (The armory) Yellowish-red
3. (The treasury) Golden
4. (The garden) Bluish-green
5. (The kingdom) White (the stage directions read: "in a gleaming torrent, the light streams in", "blue mountains")
6. (The pool of tears) Darkness; the main hall is darkened, as if a shadow had passed over
7. (The wives) Silvery (stage directions: "silver like the moon")

Based on the poem of English poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, La Damoiselle Elue is a story about a young woman who has died and gone to heaven. She longs to be reunited with her beloved who is still alive.

Exposure to the music of Debussy greatly influenced the direction of Bartok’s development. His work was revolutionary and at the forefront of the transition from 19th century late romanticism to 20th century and the breakdown of the diatonic tonality which had been an integral part of Western music for hundreds of years.

Often termed Impressionistic, Debussy’s music has a sensual shimmering quality brought about by specific orchestrations but also by use of the whole tone scale and the absence of 19th century tonal harmonic progressions.

Béla Bartók, one of the greatest 20th century composers wrote only one opera. And that one opera is highly unusual in its structure and lack of dramatic action as well as in its musical language. It is a drama of the mind, a psychological journey taken by the listener as Judith discovers Bluebeard’s character one piece at a time. Bartók wrote this fascinating piece in 1911 submitted it to a competition sponsored by the Hungarian Fine Arts Commission but was rejected in the very first round because the story did not have what they considered to be a proper dramatic shape or action. It was revised in 1917 and had its first performance in 1918 in Budapest. Like many other composers writing in the early 20th century, Bartók’s music was neither fully atonal nor fully tonal, but an interesting mix of the two. His early work followed the trends which flourished in the 19th century. However, his exposure to other 20th century composers such as Debussy aided his development as a composer and he began to experiment with the breakdown of diatonic tonality. Bluebeard’s Castle was very avant garde at the time it was premiered. While there is a clear feeling of tonality in parts of the opera, the frequent use of dissonance without resolution and highly chromatic vocal lines make the piece quite modern in its aesthetic.

In addition to writing Bluebeard’s Castle, Bartók wrote many piano pieces and a number of orchestral works which are popular today. He is also famous for his work in creating an extensive catalogue of European folk songs.

Though he felt great pride in being Hungarian, he was forced to immigrate to the United States in the 1940’s due to his strong and very vocal opposition to the Nazi regime. In the U.S. Bartók continued his research of European folk song at Columbia University until he became ill from Lukemia. He died in 1945.