Bluebeard Bartok

Yigal Saperstein

• Throughout this paper, god refers to the god of Abrahamic religions. This logically fits with Bartok’s background, as he was brought up Roman Catholic.
• Kabbalah is an esoteric method and school of thought that originated within Judaism.

The fairytale, “Bluebeard”, has evolved since Perrault initially published it in 1697, to when Bartok wrote the opera form in 1911.  Bluebeard, in all versions, is the story of a woman learning about her spouse’s, Bluebeard’s, personality and secrets. Bluebeard controls his spouse, and prior spouses, by different methods in the different versions. In Perrault’s version he killed his previous wives and kept them in a room. In Bartok’s opera, Bluebeard’s wives are kept alive, and turned into silent shiny beings. While Perrault’s version characterizes Bluebeard as entirely manlike and almost tangible, with human emotions, Bartok, in his opera, Bluebeard’s Castle represents Bluebeard as having more intangible, almost godlike character traits.

        Perrault wrote “Bluebeard” to represent male-female relationships he thought about. In his version, Bluebeard’s wife agrees to marry Bluebeard because she is impressed by his wealth. Bluebeard is driven to marry to attain aristocratic status. Their marriage is mutually beneficial, yet not due to mutual attraction. Bluebeard gives his wife the keys to his house, and private room, yet makes her promise not to open it. It is unclear why he needed to give her the key to his private room, rather than keeping it with him, or hidden in his house. His wife is driven by curiosity to open the private room. She isn’t interested in building their love and understanding of each other; she is only interested to fill her curiosity.

        Bartok wrote his opera, Bluebeard’s Castle, in 1911, on a script written by Bela Balazs a few years prior. This script implies different motives for Judith and Bluebeards actions than Perrault’s fairytale. Judith falls in love with Bluebeard, and Bluebeard offers Judith an opportunity to leave his castle, but she chooses to stay. Judith wants to allow light into the castle. She wants to open up the first of the seven doors, and finally convinces Bluebeard to hand over the keys. When she sees the torture chamber, she is initially repelled, but then curious to open up the next door. She continues to open the doors in order to learn about her spouse. She is motivated by a desire to understand the man she loves, along with curiosity. When she isn’t sure that she wants to continue, Bluebeard coaxes her on. Their relationship seems completely based on a normal human desire to learn about each other.

        A theme continues throughout Bartok’s opera until the last door is opened. The plot is highly related to Perrault’s version, until Bluebeard’s wives appear. Rather than being dead, they are alive and well, yet unable to speak and emitting light. His wives are all dressed beautifully, representing morning, afternoon, and evening. An emotional state overtakes Bluebeard, who dearly praises each one. He praises Judith and adds her to his collection of wives. She begs him to stop, but it’s too late, she’s already become one of his wives. This throws off the prevailing theme, of a couple learning about each other.

Bluebeard and Judith’s relationship is a representation of man’s relationship with god. In the BBC recording from 1993, the introduction is a man whispering in Hungarian. The voice is filled with confidence, yet is extremely quiet. This voice sounds spooky and otherworldly.  The music begins, and though spooky, sounds down to earth, and follows patterns reminiscent of other operas, such as Mozart’s Magic Flute. The music is relatively tonal, and not in a very high register. This is reminiscent of mans initial search and understanding of God through esoteric texts. In general, people learning about God, will continue to be normal functional people. They gain a deeper understanding of the workings of God, which leads them to separate themselves slightly from normal life, yet they still function.

Through the study of mystical texts, man continues to unlock secrets of the world. Judith continually unlocks Bluebeard’s secrets, by opening his doors, and seeing matters of his past. She discovers matters of great beauty and of horror. The music picks up in volume, and becomes more atonal, modulating farther and farther from its initial key. There is still a big secret lurking beyond the seventh door. Similarly, as one continues to study esoteric mystical texts they will continue to feel a void in their understanding of God. For this reason Maimonides was against the study of Kabbalah. He believed that it was unnecessary and had the potential to cause more harm than good. As the verse in Deuteronomy 30:12 states “It [Torah] isn’t in the sky.” Some scholars take this to mean that an understanding of Torah should be attainable by typical people, without leaving their worldly senses.