Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
November 29, 2017

An opera based on the legend of Bluebeard – the story of a wealthy nobleman who brutally murdered a series of wives – is perhaps a strange work to dedicate to one’s partner (quirky at best, implicitly threatening at worst) but this is indeed what Hungarian composer Béla Bartók did with his one and only opera Bluebeard’s Castle. Written in 1911 to a libretto by the composer’s friend and playwright Béla Balázs, originally intended for a prize by the Fine Arts Commission (it didn’t win), Bartók dedicated the one-act opera to his wife Márta. The music, however, is spectacular – Bartók’s score vivid and colourful – and this concert performance by David Robertson and Sydney Symphony Orchestra more than did it justice.

Michelle DeYoung, John Relyea, David Robertson and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo © Christie Brewster.

The relationship between a man (Bartók leaves a number of musical clues that this is at least partly an autobiographical work) and a woman is at the centre of the opera, which features only two singing roles – Judith, sung here by America mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, and Bluebeard, sung...