Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle [DVD Video] | The Missing Music Box from Dr Caligari's Cabinet

Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle [DVD Video] | All is forgiven

DVDs:

Bartók: Bluebeard'...

	Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle [DVD Video] Decca, 2008 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A visually stunning all-Hungarian production of Bartók's only opera, memorably led by Sir Georg Solti, one of the composer's greatest interpreters. Previously released on Decca LD and VHS.

The Missing Music Box from Dr Caligari's Cabinet

Mike Birman's excellent review of this rare expressionist opera, several moths old already, was responsible for my ordering it. A few nights ago I finally watched it. His judgment of the music says everything I might want to say. The cinematography is another matter.

Of course, with Georg Solti conducting, I knew I was getting a production with some miles on its chassis. I knew it had to be a re-release or else a filming that had been kept in the vaults. In fact, the performance was filmed in 1981. Hey, I remember 1981! There were no cell-phones or iPods in 1981, but people had stopped wearing animal skins in favor of clothes, and most Americans had indoor plumbing. It wasn't so long ago. Imagine my surprise then, when Bluebeard's Castle began flickering in grainy colorization on my HDTV screen, looking very much like a Fritz Lang silent from about 1925, yet with rich, realistic orchestral colors and 'immediate' singing! I quickly checked the box, to see if I'd read the wrong date. No, 1981! Aha, perhaps it was filmed in a castle in Transylvania, I thought! Everything, however, points to a television studio in Hungary.

Bluebeard is a short opera, just over an hour, with only two characters -- Bluebeard sung by Kolos Kovats and Judith sung by Sylvia Sass. Both singers look their parts, and one has plenty of opportunity to study their faces in such a filming. Kovats moves and stands - mostly stands - like Dr. Mabuse in one of those early horror films. One keeps expecting the celluloid to flicker and break, and the house lights to come on, embarrassing the neckers in the back rows. Sass is Theda Bara incarnate. The sets - dungeons and damp-rot in the vaults of the castle - are at the same time brooding and kitschy, and when the seven doors start flying open, well... if Alien II had been an opera sung in Hungarian and filmed by John Lurie and the crew from Stranger Than Paradise...

I confess, the first few minutes of this DVD I thought I'd been bamboozled. But then it caught me. Then I recognized the perhaps unintended brilliance of staging this 1911 opera in the cinematographic language closest to its spirit, to the out-of-kilter Freudian mood of decadent sensuality expressed in the music. I can't, in fact, imagine a better way to stage it. Anything more vivacious, anything less shadowy could never evoke such dream-like pre-modern anxiety. One of a kind in every way!

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All is forgiven

Bluebeard's Castle is probably my favorite 20th century opera. This film doesn't disappoint in conception, performance, or execution. (If this film was made more recently, I'd probably have some issues regarding the production and direction, but since it was made in the late 70s/early 80s, I guess all could be forgiven in light of the stellar performances of all involved.)

I had to take one star off the rating however, because there are no additional features or documentaries included. It's just the film pure and simple with no commentaries. At $30 a pop for a performance lasting less than an hour, purchasing this film would be basically prohibitive for most of us. But since Borders was offering a 40% off coupon that week, I decided to splurge.

I'm very glad to have it. Watch it without subtitles first, just to take in the imagery and hear the vocals and orchestra without any distractions. Then watch the movie again with the subtitles and see if you don't get truly blown away at the overall spectacle. My two cents.

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Bartok's Opera masterpiece

This is a cleverly staged television production of Bartok's Opera masterpiece. Bluebird is wonderful but Judith is outclassed by most performers that you can get on a CD. Still, it is the only video available of this wonderful Opera and the production itself (not to mention Solti's steady direction) is very clever. Technically the production shows its age -- the sound is a bit shrill (we have gotten used to being spoiled with luscious sound on DVDs).

Not perfect, but the first

I believe this is the first DVD of this 20th century masterpiece. The two singers are excellent vocally, but the bass is no actor. The orchestra, which is really the main story teller, is outstanding. The scenery is o.k.

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mixed feelings emerge

Bluebeard's Castle contains my favorite music by Bartok. But like many composers who really did not have a feel for opera, Bartok failed to make a stageworthy piece. It is tremendously static and film directors can come to grief trying to salvage works with similar problems. Obviously, lots of money was spent on the production but it doesn't really bring the piece to life in my opinion. Sass is a handsome woman with a naturally beautiful voice. Sad to say, she has technical problems in the higher register and the voice is not large enough to cut through the heavy orchestral textures. Kovatz is better with a fine ringing sound but he is as wooden as a tree. At least both performers are native to the language. Many big label recordings use major opera singers who cannot adequatly deal with the pronunciation of the language. There is a stunning simplicity and directness about the libretto to this opera and the english translation does not do it justice. But perhaps this is something that only a Hungarian would be sensitive to. All in all this opera is perhaps better appreciated as an aural experience letting one's own imagination fill in the visual aspect.

Because I really enjoy great singing, I tend to shy away from opera films where one cannot see the singer really singing. But in this case there is not other option. Too bad.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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