NDR Sinfonieorchester / Alan Gilbert

Description

There are seven locked doors in Bluebeard’s Castle, seven doors that his young bride Judith wants more than anything to open. When she does, she finds fabulous riches, but also suffering and death – as well as her three predecessors… Béla Bartók’s only opera thrives on the tension between the two protagonists, and on the irresistible seductive power of love and curiosity, but more than anything it makes its impact through the overwhelming music which accompanies the opening of the seven doors and which increases in opulence each time. The opera is deemed impossible to stage, so a concert performance is an obvious alternative. The great Michelle DeYoung returns to Hamburg after her triumphant Wagner guest appearance; at her side, Canadian bass-baritone John Relyea performs the enigmatic title role. He made his Hamburg debut as the towering soloist in Mahler’s »Symphony of a Thousand« with the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Alan Gilbert – head of the New York Philharmonic and long associated with the NDR Symphony Orchestra as first guest conductor – has opted for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 with the famous »fate motif« as a rousing prelude to the opera.