Atlanta Opera's Moving Take on "Bluebeard's Castle"

Susan Bullock and Michael Mayes as "Judith" and "Bluebeard"

Bela Bartok's 1911 opera Bluebeard's Castle was a moving experience in a production presented by Atlanta Opera last week, and nothing like what I expected.

The story of Bluebeard is well-known. The title character brings his wife Judith to his castle, gives her keys to all but one room. Naturally, she becomes obsessed with what's in there. Bluebeard at last opens the door, where Judith sees the corpses of his earlier wives.

This is not that story. As translator/director Daisy Evans recasts it, the story shows a wife with dementia, a loving husband who brings her back to a home she no longer recognizes, where a trunk full of mementoes stands in for "doors" to different "rooms" of their marriage. A scarf, a robe, a boy's baseball cap all conjure versions of herself, dressed for the 1960s, 80s, and 90s, and also two children. We understand the arc of their life together.

Helpful notes in the program by Mark Thomas Ketterson explain that Bartok and Balasz embraced abstract expressionism, a movement among the artists of their time who foregrounded emotion, leaving background sketchy. Ketterson gives the example of Munch's The Scream.

At different times in this production, Judith (Susan Bullock) is childish, flirtatious, agonized, aggressive, lost, and paranoid. At one awful moment, she beats Bluebeard (Michael Mayes) and he fights back. I can say from experience, they get dementia right.

Stephen Higgins conducted the small ensemble onstage. They were heroes in this production, maintaining a relentless flow of music highlighted by some brilliant effects -- a fanfare, a rising spray of notes.

I'm so grateful to Atlanta Opera and its supporters for continuing its "Discovery Series."