As Judith unlocks room after room in the castle of her new husband, Duke Bluebeard, we follow her deeper and deeper into the recesses of his troubled imagination.

 

Her descent takes us through a torture chamber, an armoury, a treasury and a garden, until we find a mysterious seventh chamber which holds her fate.

 

Bartok’s opera is as taut and gripping as a thriller, but it resists easy categorisation. At once a study of an obsessive, violent man and an allegory of the battle of the sexes, Bluebeard’s Castle is a powerful story that incites thought as well as suspense.

 

Presented as a semi-staged concert performance by two internationally acclaimed performers in an hour of gripping psychodrama. This production is a two-hander, with award-winning Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw singing Judith and Canadian baritone John Relyea, one of today’s finest basses, as Bluebeard. It is conducted by Martyn Brabbins, ENO’s Director of Music.