This is the first full-length examination of Bartok's 1911 opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, an authoritative study of one of the 20th century's enduring operatic works. Leafstedt adopts a broad approach to the study of opera by introducing, in addition to the expected music-dramatic analysis, topics of a more interdisciplinary nature that are new to the field of Bartok studies. These new areas of critical and scholarly terrain include a detailed literary study of the libretto and a gender-focused analysis of the opera's female character, Judith. Distinguished by its reliance on original Hungarian source material as herein translated by Leafstedt and made available in English for the first time, this book will surely fascinate music scholars and opera lovers alike.
Author(s): Carl S. Leafstedt
Edition: 1st edition,
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 254
Contents......Page 8
Introduction......Page 12
PART I. BARTÓK, BALÁZS, AND THE CREATION OF A MODERN HUNGARIAN OPERA......Page 20
1. Bartók, Balázs, and the Creation of Bluebeard's Castle......Page 22
2. Bluebeard as Theater: The Dramatic Heritage of Balázs's Symbolist Play......Page 42
PART II. MUSIC AND DRAMA IN Bluebeard's Castle......Page 60
3. The Music of Bluebeard's Castle......Page 62
4. Analysis of Individual Scenes......Page 94
Prologue of the Bard......Page 95
The First Door Scene: Bluebeard's Torture Chamber......Page 99
The Second Door Scene: Bluebeard's Armory......Page 106
The Third Door Scene: Bluebeard's Treasury......Page 108
The Fourth Door Scene: Bluebeard's Garden......Page 114
The Fifth Door Scene: Bluebeards Domains......Page 116
The Sixth Door Scene: The Lake of Tears......Page 120
The Seventh Door Scene: The Former Wives......Page 130
5. Bartók's Revisions to the Opera, 1911–1917......Page 134
PART III. CONTEXTUAL STUDIES......Page 168
6. The Bluebeard Story at the Turn of the Century......Page 170
7. Judith: The Significance of a Name......Page 194
Appendix: Duke Bluebeard's Castle: Notes on the Text by Béla Bálzs, circa 1915......Page 210
Notes......Page 214
Selected Bibliography......Page 234
B......Page 240
D......Page 245
F......Page 246
H......Page 247
J......Page 248
L......Page 249
M......Page 250
P......Page 251
S......Page 252
W......Page 254
Z......Page 255
