Le Château de Barbe-Bleue

Dominique Pitoiset retraces the life of Bluebeard through Strauss's Metamorphoses and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, which he wanted to set against each other in a diptych driven by the energy and talent of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes and its new conductor Kristiina Poska, at the heart of the stage set-up.

Judith, Bluebeard's fourth wife, wants to bring light into her husband's dark castle. She pushes open the first door, which opens into Bluebeard's torture chamber, the seat of his intimate suffering. Driven by a morbid curiosity, Judith insists, pushes open a second door, enters and reveals this whole inner citadel. Bluebeard begs her: "Watch out for us! Judith remains deaf to her own desecration. Does true love tolerate no shadows? Is there a door that must never be opened? Here, we are far from the myth of the lady-killer, but closer to that of Psyche, whose curiosity destroys everything. Dominique Pitoiset uses Strauss's Metamorphoses as a prologue to plunge into Bluebeard's childhood and plumb the depths of pain buried in the past.