EIF: ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’
Church Hill Theatre - 23/08/23
Theatre of Sound - Daisy Evans, director,
Hebrides Ensemble - Stephen Higgins, conductor
Susan Bullock, soprano | Lester Lynch, baritone
Bela Bartok’s 1911 one-act opera ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’, a popular two-hander in staged and concert performances, requires a large orchestra. Theatre of Sound, an opera company formed by director Daisy Evans and conductor Stephen Higgins, both with recent family experiences of dementia, have reinterpreted the story of Bluebeard who imprisons his wives, to Bluebeard as the devoted carer of Judith, his wife imprisoned by dementia. With score adapted by Higgins for chamber forces, this version premiered in The Stone Nest in London in 2021 and has toured extensively.
The 300-seat Church Hill Theatre is a suitably intimate venue; the set represents a living-room, with many table and wall lamps; the Hebrides Ensemble (three strings, clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn and keyboards) and conductor Stephen Higgins are to one side. English soprano, Susan Bullock, has sung Judith since the production’s first run and US baritone, Lester Lynch is an experienced Bluebeard. On stage together their interdependence is – mostly – tender, after a long marriage. Bullock’s Judith is a woman in confusion, back home after time in care. Daisy Evans’ English translation, projected either side of the stage, retains, surprisingly, references to walls weeping blood, and the lack of sunlight. Are these Judith’s delusions, and is Bluebeard’s acceptance part of his coping strategy? The castle doors which Judith opens become the drawers in a treasure chest of memories, which hold mementos from their lives together. The silk dressing gown from their courtship, the wedding veil, bootees – baby cries come from the box. Three non-speaking actors play Judith at different ages – Bullock responds animatedly both to the mementos and to the representations of her earlier selves, stroking her wedding veil, holding the teddy-bear like a baby. Clearly a tactile woman, her earlier seductive attempt to unfasten her blouse is gently restrained by Lynch – Bluebeard too has memories he’s afraid to reawaken.
Bullock and Lynch turn in faultless portrayals. Their sung interchanges are often short although sometimes Bullock, frustrated by her lack of words, lashes out bitterly at him. There are three climaxes: at the Christmas celebrations, where two teenagers play the children, with the music of Bluebeard’s kingdom soaring out, an organ (James Willshire, keyboards) added to the mix of the strings and winds; at a bereavement where the dissonant music matches Judith’s heartbreak, portrayed by Bullock and the oldest actor; and, as the last forbidden door/box is opened, when Lynch sings his longest aria, his expression of loss.
The work is continually engrossing, never less than beautifully sung and acted by Bullock and Lynch, deftly accompanied by the Hebrides Ensemble, with Stephen Higgins, conducting, responsive to every nuance of the actors’ performance. Nevertheless I confess to missing the full Bartok experience! His only opera is a rare work, which operates just as well in concert when we can imagine for ourselves what lies behind the doors. The full orchestral sound with brass and timpani are part of the exploration of the characters’ complex emotions, and I always leave with Bluebeard’s cries of “Judith, Judith” ringing in my ears.
So I wasn’t, as other critics have been, overwhelmed by this version. I gather there was an Auckland performance of the Evans/Higgins version, with Bullock as Judith - and the whole forces of the New Zealand Symphony orchestra. If only…
Cover photo: Jess Shurte
