Inside Bluebeard's Castle Music and Drama in B}}la Bart}}k's Opera [Paperback]

The first full-length examination of Bart?k's 1911 operaDuke Bluebeard's Castle, this is an authoritative study of one of the twentieth century's enduring operatic works. Leafstedt adopts a broad approach to the study of opera by introducing, in addition to the expected music-dramatic analysis, topics of a more interdisciplinary nature that are new to the field of Bart?k studies.

Introduction
PART I. Bart?k, Bal?zs, and the Creation of a Modern Hungarian Opera
1. Bart?k, Bal?zs, and the Creation ofBluebeard's Castle
2.Bluebeardas Theater: The Dramatic Heritage of Bal?zs's Symbolist Play
PART II. Music and Drama inBluebeard's Castle
3. The Music ofBluebeard's Castle
4. Analysis of Individual Scenes
- Prologue
- Torture Chamber
- Armory
- Treasury
- Garden
- Bluebeard's Domains
- Lake of Tears
- Former Wives
5. Bart?k's Revisions to the Opera, 1911-1917
PART III. Contextual Studies
6. The Bluebeard Story in Turn-of-the-Century Literature
7. Judith: The Significance of a Name
Appendix.Duke Bluebeard's Castle: Notes on the text by B?la Bal?zs, circa 1915

Because of Leafstedt's deep study, we go through the seven doors of Bluebeard's castle, musically and dramatically. On this extended journey we gain a better understanding of the intricacies of the plot and the dramatic action. His thorough examination of the folklore surrounding the myth of Bluebeard proves quite enlightening. - -The Opera Journal

...[Leafsteadt] thoroughly and imaginatively examines Judith's character and the psychological implications of the Bluebeard legend. Writing in an accessible style based on sound scholarship, the author unites literary and musical sources. This unique, high-level study of an important early-20th-century masterpiece should appeal to graduate stulÃF