Ariane et Barbe-bleue by Dukas, Du (2019/2019), Dirigé par Andrea Schwalbach,, Chef d'orchestre Alexander Kalajdzic, Stadttheater, Bielefeld, Allemagne

Ariane enters the castle of Duke Bluebeard as a bride, accompanied by her wet nurse. Behind the only door forbidden to her, which she heads for all the more purposefully, Ariane meets her predecessors: five imprisoned women who vegetate more dead than alive. Even if Bluebeard hardly appears, unlike in comparable operas - for example by Béla Bartók: His powerful self is present in every room of his castle and weighs heavily on the women. Each with their own story, each threatened by the Duke's death sentence. Ariane gains their trust and gives them the strength to resist together. Armed with the confidence of her ancient namesake, Ariadne, who showed her lover the way out of the cruel Minotaur's labyrinth, Ariane has the courage and intellect Paul Dukas, famous for his symphonic poem The Sorcerer's Apprentice , created a darkly sensual and atmospherically dense setting of the well-known fairytale material in his opera Ariane et Barbe-Bleue , which premiered in 1907. None other than Maurice Maeterlinck turned this into a libretto that touches on surprisingly current topics. Dukas' tonal language at times even surpasses the colorfully sparkling opera scores of his teacher Alexander Zemlinsky and again and again lends the touching story of liberation almost intoxicating moments.