Synopsis
"Beware, beware of my castle, beware of us both, Judith! - Bluebeard's Castle"
"If you did not love me and if you were clever, the telephone would become a terrible weapon that leaves no marks and makes no noise. - La Voix humaine"
Two dialogues which in reality are simply monologues. Because Judith, the sombre shadow-like fourth wife who appears “out of the heart of a star-studded night”, cannot be anything other than the wounded voice of Bluebeard’s subconscious, shut away in the windowless castle which is indissociable from his own psyche. And because She – but who is She and to whom is She speaking? – responds to the silence of the man who, at the other end of a broken telephone line, is perhaps not even there. Almost five decades separate the conception of Bluebeard’s Castle and that of La Voix humaine – even though Jean Cocteau’s stage play – used without adaptation in the libretto – in fact dates from 1930. In between lies half a century of profound soul-searching that saw the creation of Berg’s Wozzeck and then Lulu as well as Schönberg’s Moses und Aron. Nevertheless, the echo of Debussy’s Pelléas & Mélisande and his spoken-language-like prosody can be heard in the utterly different musical idioms of Bartók and Poulenc – the former composer propelled by the founding impetus of still infant Hungarian opera and the latter who, describing his monodrama as a lyric tragedy, traces its ancestry back to Lully. Working together for the first time, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Krzysztof Warlikowski lift “the veil of our eyelashes” to pierce the shadows in which the seventh door closes on a room overflowing with tears of blood.
Duration : 1h55 no interval
Language : Hungarian / French
Artists
Opera in one act (1918)
Creative team
Cast
Tragédie lyrique in one act
Creative team
Cast
Media
Access and services
Palais Garnier
Place de l'Opéra
75009 Paris
Public transport
Underground Opéra (lignes 3, 7 et 8), Chaussée d’Antin (lignes 7 et 9), Madeleine (lignes 8 et 14), Auber (RER A)
Bus 20, 21, 27, 29, 32, 45, 52, 66, 68, 95, N15, N16
Calculate my routeAt the Palais Garnier, buy €10 tickets for seats in the 6th category (very limited visibility, two tickets maximum per person) on the day of the performance at the Box offices.
In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:
- €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
- €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65
Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.
Palais Garnier
- Every day from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until performances end
- Get in from Place de l’Opéra or from within the theatre’s public areas
- For more information: +33 1 53 43 03 97
Online
Palais Garnier
Place de l'Opéra
75009 Paris
Public transport
Underground Opéra (lignes 3, 7 et 8), Chaussée d’Antin (lignes 7 et 9), Madeleine (lignes 8 et 14), Auber (RER A)
Bus 20, 21, 27, 29, 32, 45, 52, 66, 68, 95, N15, N16
Calculate my routeAt the Palais Garnier, buy €10 tickets for seats in the 6th category (very limited visibility, two tickets maximum per person) on the day of the performance at the Box offices.
In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:
- €35 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
- €70 tickets for senior citizens over 65
Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.
Palais Garnier
- Every day from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until performances end
- Get in from Place de l’Opéra or from within the theatre’s public areas
- For more information: +33 1 53 43 03 97