Klarinet Archive - Posting 000149.txt from 2007/01

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Dallas Opera this evening.....at the Meyerson
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 08:48:22 -0500

A treat and an especially rare offering tonight....
If you are in the Dallas, Tx area....this is a presentation worth =
attending.

Forest
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Musical stronghold

Bartok's 'Bluebeard's Castle' is rarely performed and hauntingly =
beautiful

05:58 PM CST on Tuesday, January 16, 2007

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News=20

One of the most sensuous and strangely beautiful operas of the last =
century
is by a composer who wouldn't immediately spring to mind. Gentle =
paddings of
string tone, seductive twinings of winds and voluptuous harmonic
progressions suggest the Claude Debussy of Pell=E9as et M=E9lisande, =
completed
nine years earlier. The extravagant orchestrations of Richard Strauss =
are
another conspicuous influence.=20

But Bluebeard's Castle is an early work by the Hungarian composer B=E9la
Bart=F3k, who lived from 1881 to 1943.=20

Only an hour long, with little action, calling for only two singers but =
a
huge orchestra, it's an awkward fit for opera-company seasons. Its rare
performances are usually in symphony-orchestra concerts.=20

But, as part of its 50th season, the Dallas Opera is presenting a
theatrically enhanced concert performance =96 not in the usual Fair Park =
Music
Hall, but at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. The concert, a
fundraising gala, will feature two internationally celebrated singers:
English bass Robert Lloyd as the mysterious Duke Bluebeard and American
mezzo Denyce Graves as his new wife, Judith.=20

Music director Graeme Jenkins will conduct the Dallas Opera Orchestra, =
with
extra brass and rumbles from the Meyerson's big C.B. Fisk organ. The
performance will be sung in the original Hungarian, with simultaneous
English translations projected overhead.=20

"We have a complete lighting plot by Marie Barrett," Mr. Jenkins says. =
"And
there will be these doors hung above the orchestra. At the opening of =
each
door there's a new color of light, which is specified in the libretto."=20

Although Wednesday's performance will be the first for the Dallas Opera,
Bluebeard's Castle actually had its American premiere in Dallas, at the
Music Hall. The 1949 performance was by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, =
then
led by Bart=F3k's countryman Antal Dorati.=20

"Dallas in the 1940s was an amazing place," Mr. Jenkins says. "What =
Margo
Jones did at the Magnolia Lounge was extraordinary, and then there was =
what
Nicola Rescigno and Larry Kelly did with the Dallas Opera in the late
1950s."=20

As with Debussy's Pell=E9as et Melisande, though in a much shorter time =
span,
Bluebeard's Castle has a dreamy, mysterious quality. We're not quite =
sure
who these people are, or where or when =96 except "in legendary times."=20

Bart=F3k's librettist, B=E9la Bal=E1zs, was strongly influenced by the =
Belgian
symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck, whose Pell=E9as et M=E9lisande =
Debussy
turned into his opera. Maeterlinck's own play on the Bluebeard legend,
Ariane et le Barbe-Bleu, was turned into an opera by the French composer
Paul Dukas.=20

Bart=F3k's miniopera opens with a brief spoken introduction, after which
Bluebeard and Judith enter a gloomy castle hall. She's deeply in love, =
but
soon unsettled to discover that there are no windows. There are, =
however,
seven doors, which she insists on opening, one by one. "Show me all your
hidden secrets," she demands.=20

All along, Bluebeard tries to head off her inquiries. "Sohse k=E9rdezz," =
he
keeps singing, in the Hungarian libretto. "Ask no questions."=20

Opening the first five doors in turn, Judith finds:=20

=95daggers, shackles and branding irons, in what Bluebeard reveals is =
his
torture chamber;=20

=95spears, daggers and armor, in Bluebeard's armory;=20

=95mountains of gold, gems and crowns, in the castle treasury;=20

=95a luxurious secret garden; and=20

=95Bluebeard's kingdom, of "silken meadows, velvet forests/tranquil =
streams of
winding silver./Lofty mountains blue and hazy."=20

"Up until the fifth door, things are going OK," Mr. Jenkins says. But on
closer inspection, the beautiful vistas prove to be stained by blood. =
Even
the dank castle walls weep blood.=20

Bluebeard more and more strongly urges Judith not to open any more =
doors,
but she is increasingly determined. The music becomes more agitated, =
even
ominous.=20

The sixth door opens onto a still lake of tears. Finally, from the =
seventh
door emerge Bluebeard's three previous wives, in glorious crowns and =
robes,
living and breathing, but dead to the outside world. To find out what
happens next, you'll have to see the performance.=20

"It's about second wives that want to come in and redecorate the place," =
Mr.
Jenkins says. "And they wonder what's in that locked closet, what =
skeletons
are hidden.=20

"Does he want this marriage to work, or is poor Judith on the road to =
the
same destruction?=20

"It's the way the darkness of her situation grows in the music over the =
hour
that I find absolutely incredible."=20

E-mail scantrell@-----.com=20

Plan your life=20

8 p.m. Wednesday at Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora. $50 =
and
$70 ($200 including reception). 214-443-1000, www.dallasopera.org.=20

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