Page 116 - FINAL_Theatre of Sound Coverage Book
P. 116
The two leads are extraordinary in Bluebeard’s Castle (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic)
Director Daisy Evans and conductor Stephen Higgins have turned the work
on its head. Bartok’s vast score becomes an angular, suggestive sketch for
just six musicians from the London Sinfonietta; a fireside tale and its
bogeyman becomes a horror story full of tenderness and care, in which
nothing is crueller, more terrifying than love.
The two leads are extraordinary – two international opera singers
reframing both voice and gesture for the confronting intimacy of this
space. Bullock’s vulnerability, Finley’s warmth, the frustration the pulls
them apart and pushes them back together is beautifully shaded: the most
moving thing I’ve ever seen either do.
In Bluebeard’s Castle at the Royal Festival Hall – London Philharmonic
Orchestra ★★★☆
The second offering – In Bluebeard’s Castle a concert performance by
Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra – was
everything you’d expect. A packed platform gave us the glassy sheen of the
lake of tears, the sour-sweet smell of the garden and of course the dazzling
sonic blaze behind the fifth door. Soprano Ildiko Komlosi and bass John
Relyea were all you could hope.
