{"id":446,"date":"2007-09-26T21:57:01","date_gmt":"2007-09-27T05:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/26\/classical-glass\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:15:45","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:15:45","slug":"classical-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/26\/classical-glass\/","title":{"rendered":"classical glass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of the new-ish blog Classical in Seattle<\/a>, a link to this past season’s semi-staged production ofBluebeard’s Castle by the Seattle Symphony. Renowned (and also perhaps a bit over-hyped) glass artist Dale Chihuly was commissioned to produce blown glass pieces to represent what was revealed behind each door.<\/p>\n

In case you aren’t familiar with this opera (a great masterpiece of the 20th century) – here’s a rough synopsis, courtesy of wikipedia:<\/p>\n

The setting is a huge, dark hall in a castle, with seven locked doors. Judith insists that all the doors be opened, to allow light to enter into the forbidding interior, insisting further that her demands are based in her love for Bluebeard. Bluebeard refuses, saying that they are private places not to be explored by others, and asking Judith to love him but ask no questions. Judith persists, and eventually prevails over his resistance.<\/p>\n

The first door opens to reveal a torture chamber, stained with blood. Repelled, but then intrigued, Judith pushes on. Behind the second door is a storehouse of weapons, and behind the third a storehouse of riches. Bluebeard urges her on. Behind the fourth door is a secret garden of great beauty; behind the fifth, a window onto Bluebeard’s vast kingdom. All is now sunlit, but blood has stained the riches, watered the garden, and grim clouds throw blood-red shadows over Bluebeard’s kingdom.<\/p>\n

Bluebeard pleads with her to stop – that the castle is as bright as it can get, and will not get any brighter, but Judith refuses to be stopped after coming this far, and opens the penultimate sixth door, as a shadow passes over the castle. This is the first room that has not been somehow stained with blood; a silent silvery lake is all that lies within, “a lake of tears”. Bluebeard begs Judith to simply love him, and ask no more questions. The last door must be shut forever. But she persists, asking him about his former wives, and then accusing him of having murdered them, that their blood was the blood everywhere, their tears those that filled the lake, their bodies behind the last door. At this, Bluebeard hands over the last key.<\/p>\n

Behind the door are Bluebeard’s three former wives, but still alive, dressed in crowns and jewelery. They emerge silently, and Bluebeard, overcome with emotion, prostrates himself before them and praises each in turn, finally turning to Judith and beginning to praise her as his fourth wife. She is horrified, begs him to stop, but it is too late. He dresses her in the jewelery they wear, which she finds exceedingly heavy. Her head drooping under the weight, she follows the other wives along a beam of moonlight through the seventh door. It closes behind her, and Bluebeard is left alone as all fades to total darkness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’re intrigued by the description of the action, I highly recommend a great recording<\/a> by the Chicago Symphony under the direction of Pierre Boulez with Jessye Norman as Judith and L\u00c3\u00a1szl\u00c3\u00b3 Polg\u00c3\u00a1r<\/span> as Duke Bluebeard. The climactic ‘kingdom’ door music has enormous presence and splendor in this account. And Norman is spellbinding.<\/p>\n

A more classic choice would be the Decca recording<\/a> with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry in the main roles, with the London Symphony conducted by Istv\u00c3\u00a1n Kert\u00c3\u00a9sz.<\/p>\n

You can see photos here<\/a> – I particularly like the ‘lake of tears’ door – very evocative and effective!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On a side note, when I asked former Music Director James Depreist why he didn’t program this work (which he liked very much) in Portland, he said that they had, in fact, programmed it (now about 20 years ago) and it was the worst selling concert in OSO history.\u00c2\u00a0 What a shame…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of the new-ish blog Classical in Seattle, a link to this past season’s semi-staged production ofBluebeard’s Castle by the Seattle Symphony. Renowned (and also perhaps a bit over-hyped) glass artist Dale Chihuly was commissioned to produce blown glass pieces to represent what was revealed behind each door. In case you aren’t familiar with this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,54,55,3662,62,3656],"class_list":["post-446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical","tag-opera","tag-orchestra","tag-portland","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-7c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":642,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/05\/more-raves-on-seattle-opera-08-09-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":0},"title":"more raves on seattle opera 08-09 season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Gavin Borchert shares my enthusiasm about the Seattle Opera's 2008-2009 season, especially the Bart\u00c3\u00b3k\/Schoenberg duo of one-act operas: Most exciting\u00e2\u20ac\u201dunbelievable, in fact\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis their presentation of Robert Lepage's production of Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and Schoenberg's monodrama Erwartung (Feb. 21-March 7), which I saw in Vancouver in 1998 and never dreamed would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.seattleweekly.com\/music\/blogs\/reverb\/gavin.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3310,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/02\/busy-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":1},"title":"busy times","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As we edge our way into November, and I reflect on what's going on in the classical music scene here in Portland, I'm finding it remarkable what all has happened already, and what's about to happen. At the Oregon Symphony, we've just completed our third Classical series concerts. The Vancouver\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1197,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/01\/orchestral-blogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":2},"title":"orchestral blogs","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I write one of the few blogs independently-penned by an orchestra member, and I'm not sure why it's such a lonely job description.\u00c2\u00a0 However, a rapidly expanding area of classical music blogs are blogs that are written as part of a symphony orchestra's public relations and\/or artistic arms.\u00c2\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ssoblog-400x105.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":623,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/29\/bizarre-music-news-of-2007\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":3},"title":"bizarre music news of 2007","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Seattle Times' classical music critic Melinda Bargreen reports on the bizarre classical music news that occurred around the world in 2007. Unfortunately (and am I sensing a pattern here?) she neglected to mention a couple items from her own backyard: The Seattle Symphony is being sued by a member\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4298,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/31\/nw-horn-orchestra-this-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":4},"title":"nw horn orchestra this saturday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what came into my inbox today: French Horn Enthusiasts; Our Fourth annual show. Don\u2019t miss it! The Northwest Horn Orchestra rides again On Saturday, April 3rd at 8:00, The Northwest Horn Orchestra will perform at The Old Church, 1422\u00a0 SW 11th, in downtown Portland. Maestro Dave Bryan and eighteen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":624,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/12\/29\/letters-in-response-to-seattle-nytimes-article\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":5},"title":"letters in response to Seattle NYTimes article","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the upcoming Sunday edition of the New York Times, several letters are printed in the Arts section - you can read the complete letters (as printed) here. Here are some of the best parts of some of them: ...The implication that I was hired by Gerard Schwarz because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}