the unfathomable door of Love

Bela Bartok with his librettist Bela Balazs has laid the true foundations of the Hungarian opera. The theme of Bluebeard was in the air with Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande and Paul Dukas with Ariadne and Bluebeard. Far from the symbolism and the same tale by Charles Perrault which carries with it the weight of sin of the woman, Bartok makes a work a mystery closer to dark stories of Transylvania that the usual pattern. Written in 1911 and represented in 1918, the opera captivates as it confronts the man and the woman only. That is all the drama of love between the Duke and his last wife Judith, unable to communicate, destructive jealousy which is the heart of the book. Seven gates after closing the door of the castle entrance will be the Stations of the death of love. Judith loves the Duke, but it requires the opening of the inner world of intimate secret of all.
The music resulting in a lavish orchestration both tear of lakes, vast areas, torture rooms, the tears of lakes, flowers, jewelry that everyone carries in him. Everywhere the blood streams as indelible stain of the past. In sixty minutes and one duet between Judith and Duke in the Bartok separation ceremony goes to the bottom of the human soul. This opera is lucky to drive and after his brother Adam Fisher, Ivan Fischer renews the miracle through his interpreters whose Laszlo Polgar Judith finally a huge and unlike his Jessy Norman height in the second version Boulez. Since there are many effects in the music of Bartok (groans, sighs, ...) the SACD brings a definite plus