Béla Bartók - Hertog Blauwbaards castle - Oxalys

The castle of Duke Bluebeard has no windows, the walls weep. The building sighs, breathes, and groans like a living body. From the first bars of Bartók's enigmatic opera, the hidden tries to come to the surface. Judith does not let herself be stopped and searches further. Is she just a curious wife? Or is she the mirror of Bluebeard's wounded subconscious? Or that of Béla Bartók himself? ‘Hertog Blauwbaards castle’, the only opera by Bartók, is much darker and more split than the fairy tale ‘Bluebeard’ that Charles Perrault recorded in the 17th century. In the original version, a young woman is given the bunch of keys to his castle by her rich husband. She may open all doors, except one. When she opens it anyway, Bluebeard threatens to murder her just like her predecessors. Fortunately, her brothers manage to save her just in time. In Bartók's version, there is no question of a reassuring moral or deus ex machina, but a tense, fragile confrontation between two people who love and simultaneously repel each other. The score uses an almost expressionistic texture, rooted in traditional Hungarian music. The vocal lines are closer to the impressionism of Claude Debussy; they embrace the spoken language and capture the breathing, the vibration, the doubt. In the middle stands Bluebeard. Not a caricatural monster, but a man in love, generous, vulnerable. He warns. He almost begs. He draws a line – the line beyond which the danger begins: for Judith, for the couple, and therefore also for him. Yet Judith goes further. One door. Then the other. In this adaptation for ensemble of Siebe Thijs, accompanied by a video performance of Lise Bruyneel, we are no longer spectators at a distance. We follow Judith live as she descends into the castle. We walk up and down the stairs with her. We feel her hesitations, her tension, her stubborn determination. At every door she goes through, the image explodes, the music changes, the space opens up to unexpected worlds – flamboyant, dizzying – before closing again. The further Judith goes, the greater the doubt becomes. Does the castle really exist? Or is it the inner architecture of a tormented mind? When Wanneer Judith finally throws herself into ‘a night strewn with stars’, we no longer know whether we are witnessing a vision or a cataclysm. The sigh, the lament is a recurring motif in Bartók's opera. At the request of Oxalys, composer-arranger Siebe Thijs wrote a short pre-overture, a chamber music pendant, in which he analyzes the sigh motif and places it in a conceptual context. In collaboration with Wilde Westen & Conservatorium Kortrijk. Schouwburg Kortrijk is a proud UiTPAS partner. Save UiTPAS points during the performance. Are you entitled to a ticket at a reduced rate? Keep your UiTPAS at hand and book your ticket online or by phone at 056 23 98 55. You can also visit our ticket counter. Be sure to bring your UiTPAS with you. Siebe Thijs (°1999) - sighs, breaths, whispers, moans (world premiere) (2026) for flute, clarinet, viola & percussion Béla Bartók (1881-1945) - Hertog Blauwbaards castle (1911) (arr. Siebe Thijs - 2026) for soprano and bass, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp & 2 percussionists