Radio broadcast: Peter Eötvös | Bartók – without audience

Programme

Béla Bartók
Bluebeard's castle, op. 11 (Sz 48) reduced

Peter Eötvös, Conductor

Viktoria Vizin, Mezzo-Soprano (La Donna & Judith)

Krisztián Cser, Baritone (Blaubart)

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

about the programme

The traumatized daughter of a murder victim begins to love the evildoer – and her love for a psychopath ends in murder. This might be a fitting plot summary of Peter Eötvös’s and Béla Bartók’s one-act crime stories – a gruesome, eternally recurring cycle. Eötvös, who conducts this evening of opera in concert performance, wrote music for Alessandro Baricco’s novella Senza sangue (Without blood). The work, which received its concert première in 2015, is conceived as a counterpart to Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, likewise with a tension-filled arc of seven scenes and almost identical instrumentation. Viktoria Vizin can be heard in both roles – Nina and Judith. Russell Braun sings Pedro in Senza sangue, as he did at the première, while Bartók’s Bluebeard is taken by Krisztián Cser. Bartók’s opera will be performed at 6 pm, Eötvös’s at 8.30 pm.