Bluebeard’s Castle |
Four Songs
Bluebeard’s Castle
By Béla Bartók
Libretto by Béla Balázs
Arranged by Eberhard Kloke
Four Songs
By Alma Mahler
The Terminal @ Flynn Cruiseport Boston
Wednesday, March 22, 2023 | 7:30PM
Friday, March 24, 2023 | 7:30PM
Saturday, March 25, 2023 | 7:30PM
Sunday, March 26, 2023 | 3PM
Sung in English and German with English surtitles
Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
Experience a captivating production of two rare and impactful works at BLO. Bluebeard’s Castle transports you into the world of a classic tale, with Mahler’s Four Songs deepening the dimensions of Judith as she uncovers the horrors of her bridegroom, Bluebeard. Critically acclaimed director Anne Bogart returns to BLO following her critically acclaimed staging of A Handmaid’s Tale. Don’t miss this evening of opera that will keep on the edge of your seat.
Read & Listen to previews from The Boston Globe and WBUR
The Terminal @ Flynn Cruiseport Boston
1 Black Falcon Avenue | South Boston, MA 02210
Parking
Marine Park Garage
12 Drydock Avenue Boston, MA 02210
Convenient and affordable covered just down the street from our venue.
Directions
Taking the T? Take Silver Line 2 to Drydock. Find a Silver Line stop that works well for you! We recommend arriving to the venue 45 minutes prior to the performance.
Hear what people are saying about this new production –
“Wonderfully imaginative…This production of Bartok’s ‘Bluebeard’s Castle,’ is one of BLO’s most compelling in recent memory.
“Anne Bogart has created a production that resonates sympathetically with the vivid, kaleidoscopic music of Bartok’s score.”
“Excellent vocal performances are at the heart of the evening. Ryan McKinny [sang] a rare blend of dramatic force and subtlety. Naomi Louisa O’Connell sang with coolly gleaming tones and a well-honed sense of her character’s obsessive urge to reveal the Duke’s secrets.
“Riveting…a night of music and theater brought into a kind of elusive accord…sets as its new standard.”
– Boston Globe
March 23, 2023
“Breathtaking…a stunning mixture of choreography and song.”
“…an electrifying, artistic happening…Worth dropping everything to secure a ticket. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.”
“Sheer brilliance…There needs to be a new term coined for BLO’s current production: ‘opera’ doesn’t begin to describe the multi-sensorial experience provided by this inventive, exciting and unique installation event.”
“Naomi Louisa O’Connell is iridescent and silver-throated; Ryan McKinny is commanding.”
– Theatre Mirror
March 23, 2023
“I just love all the dramatic aspects of opera and I love the music and the drama coming together and I’ve been directing operas for years. What’s not to love about it? It’s grand and glorious and it tells fantastic stories.” – Anne Bogart
– The Arts Fuse
March 14, 2023
“BLO returns to action with the peculiar pairing of Bartók’s harrowing masterpiece and four songs by Alma Mahler”
– The Arts Fuse
March 12, 2023
“Bogart…is renowned for the musicality of her staging.”
– Boston Globe
Feb 28, 2023
“Ryan McKinny & Naomi Louisa-O’Connell Lead Boston Lyric Opera’s Double Bill”
– OperaWire
Feb 17, 2023
“Director Anne Bogart to Helm Bartók’s BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE at Boston Lyric Opera”
– Broadway World
Feb 14, 2023
“Boston’s theater scene sizzles this season”
– Boston Herald
Jan 22, 2023
“Boston Lyric Opera To Present a New Production of Bluebeard’s Castle From Director Anne Bogart”
– The Boston Sun
Dec. 22, 2022
BLO Mid-Season Casting Announcement
– Broadway World Boston
Dec 1, 2022
This season, Ryan McKinny brings his commanding bass-baritone and incisive characterization to stage dramas spanning three centuries. At LA Opera, he makes his first appearance as Scarpia in Tosca. Also in Los Angeles, McKinny re-teams with composer and conductor John Adams, reprising his role as Clarence in Girls of the Golden West at LA Philharmonic. He returns to Seattle Opera as Kurwenal in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and to Houston Grand Opera as Jochanaan in Salome. McKinny concludes the season with a three-city tour of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s newest opera, commissioned by Music of Remembrance, with performances in Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago.
Naomi O’Connell made her professional debut in 2012 starring on the West End in Terrence McNally’s play Master Class. Her work encompasses both theatrical and operatic repertoire, ranging from plays, operas, and recitals to cabarets, sound sculptures, and virtual reality performance art.
Cassie Wang is a multidisciplinary artist exploring contemporary dance, design, technology, and everything in between. She calls Kansas City home and is currently based in Boston. Wang graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Computer Science and minors in Dance and Media Studies from Pomona College in 2021, where she had the opportunity to originate works with Derion Loman, Becca Lemme, Iyun Ashani Harrison, and Ronit Ziv. She has also trained with San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, BODYTRAFFIC, GagaLab, and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and was the recipient of the DanceJerusalem Scholarship and the Virginia Princehouse Allen Dance Award. Currently, Wang is dancing with VLA DANCE and KAIROS Dance Theater and freelances with local choreographers – most recently with Rachel Linsky, Jessi Stegall, Dara Capley, and Chavi Bansal. Her choreographic works have been presented by the Solstice Dance Project, ACDA Baja, NACHMO Boston, Dunamis, and RESILIENCE Dance Company in St. Louis. In her professional development, Wang is grateful to be supported by organizations that uplift artists of color as a 2022 Emerging Artist Fellow with Dunamis and as a part of the inaugural cohort of the MIDDAY BIPOC Professional Dancer Mentorship Program.
Marissa Molinar is a contemporary dancer, arts administrative activist, and the founder/director of Midday Movement Series, a grassroots initiative cultivating a new, diverse generation of dance leaders through professional development, mentorship, and advocacy. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Brown University with a focus in urban conservation and environmental justice, and a certificate in contemporary dance from the Professional Certificate Program at Gibney Dance, NYC.
Olivia Moon is a Boston-based multidisciplinary artist with specific passions in photography, movement, and pole dance. Her work, in all mediums, is greatly centered around her self-identity. As a queer, Asian-American person, Olivia uses her artistic platforms to highlight underrepresented voices. This year, she was one of 15 BIPOC artists selected for WBUR’s The Makers series. She currently teaches at Boston Pole Fitness and dances with KAIROS Dance Theater and VLA DANCE, as well as working on several independent projects.
Sasha Peterson currently lives and grew up dancing in the Boston area. In 2016, she completed a dance major at Connecticut College, through which she had the privilege of learning from and performing works by renowned dance faculty and guest artists. Sasha has danced at Ali Kenner Brodsky & Co., Betsy Miller Dance Projects, and Jessy Zizzo & Dancers. She has danced with Lisa Race, apprenticed at David Dorfman Dance, and is a company member at Grant Jacoby & Dancers, Ruckus Dance, and VLA DANCE. She currently teaches at Midday Movement Series and is also a licensed massage therapist. 
Aliza Franz is a Boston-based dancer, collaborator, and arts manager. She graduated from Skidmore College, where she earned a double major in dance (performance and choreography) and psychology, with a minor in gender studies. While in school, Franz had the pleasure of working with artists such as Sidra Bell, Erika Pujic, and Stephen Petronio. Since she began freelancing in Boston, Franz has danced with various artists and companies, including Ilya Vidrin, Lorraine Chapman The Company, and Eliza Malecki Dance. She is currently a company member of VLA Dance, in residence with Jessi Stegall, and a part of the next installment of Rachel Linsky’s ZACHOR project. In MEET THE ARTISTS BLO | SPRING 2023 17 addition to doing freelance work, Franz is a passionate dance teacher, working with students ranging in age from 5-18 in a variety of styles. Outside of dance, Franz is the Creative Director of Zamana Art, a company that provides team building and fosters interpersonal connection through the lens of art and creativity. Franz is excited to dance in her first production with Boston Lyric Opera.
Recently honored by WBUR as one of 15 artists of color making an impact in Boston, Victoria L. Awkward is the director of VLA DANCE, an emerging dance organization. She aims to celebrate the talents and artistries of Boston through contemporary dance. Originally from Massachusetts, Awkward was trained at Impulse Dance Center by LuAnn Pagella and has worked with Boston-based artists such as Karen Krolak. She graduated from Goucher College with honors in Dance, Visual Art and Education. While there, she danced for the Goucher Repertory Dance Ensemble and performed in works by Sidra Bell, Christian von Howard, Helen Simoneau, Iyun Ashani Harrison, Iquail Shaheed, and others. Awkward is also a freelance artist and recently choreographed Romeo and Juliet with Boston Lyric Opera & Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. She has performed with Shura Baryshnikov, Levi Marsman, Ashani Dances (now Ballet Ashani), Attn: Dance, The Davis Sisters, Heather Stewart, Jenna Pollack, and Ruckus Dance. She has been a guest teacher at Salem State University, the head dance coach at Middlesex School in Concord, and the visual arts coordinator at West End House. She continually deepens her teaching practices through her work as a mentee with the Cambridge-based Midday Movement Series.
Anne Bogart last worked with BLO directing Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid’s Tale. A professor at Columbia University, where she runs the graduate directing program, Bogart is the author of six books: A Director Prepares; The Viewpoints Book; And Then, You Act; Conversations with Anne; What’s the Story; and The Art of Resonance. Recent theater works with SITI Company include Falling and Loving; The Bacchae; the theater is a blank page; Persians; Steel Hammer; A Rite; Café Variations; Trojan Women; American Document; Antigone; Freshwater Under Construction; Who Do You Think You Are; Radio Macbeth; Hotel Cassiopeia; Death and the Ploughman; La Dispute; Score; bobrauschenbergamerica; Room; War of the Worlds: The Radio Play; Cabin Pressure; Alice’s Adventures; Culture of Desire; Bob; Going, Going, Gone; Small Lives/Big Dreams; The Medium; Hay Fever; Private Lives; Miss Julie; and Orestes. Opera credits include Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (Croatian National Theatre), Verdi’s Macbeth (The Glimmerglass Festival), Bellini’s Norma (Washington National Opera) and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Glimmerglass Festival), Bizet’s Carmen (The Glimmerglass Festival), Brecht/Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Opera), and three operas by Deborah Drattell: Nicholas and Alexandra (Los Angeles Opera), Marina: A Captive Spirit (American Opera Projects), and Lilith (New York City Opera).
Sara Brown is a set designer for theater, opera, and dance. Selected designs include The Day at Jacob’s Pillow; Hagoromo at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Fellow Travelers and La Rondine at Minnesota Opera; World of Wires at The Kitchen in NYC and Festival d’Automne in Paris; Prince of Providence at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI; Der Freischütz with Heartbeat Opera in NYC; and The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upcoming projects include Common Ground Revisited at the Huntington Theater and Letters That You Will Not Get produced by American Opera Projects as part of the On Women Festival curated by Irondale Ensemble Project. Brown is an assistant professor of music and theater arts at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Angie Jepson is an intimacy director, fight choreographer, actress, and professor based in the Boston area. Her fight and intimacy work has been seen onstage at theaters including the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Huntington Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Central Square Theater, and at several universities in the Boston area. She is currently on the faculty of the Brown/Trinity MFA Acting program, and at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she teaches in the theatre and opera departments. She is a certified intimacy director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and a certified teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. She holds an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University.ORCHESTRA
VIOLIN I
Annie Rabbat Orchestra Leader
Colin Davis
Rohan Gregory
VIOLIN II
Sarah Atwood Principal
Stacey Alden
Yonah Zur
VIOLA
Abigail Kubert-Cross Acting Principal
Joan Ellersick
Don Krishnaswami
CELLO
Loewi Lin Principal
Jan Pfeiffer-Rios
DOUBLE BASS
Kevin Green Acting Principal
FLUTE
Linda Toote Principal
Renee Krimsier Carter
OBOE
Grace Shryock Acting Principal
Mary Cicconetti
CLARINET
Jan Halloran Principal
Nicholas Brown
Ryan Yure
BASSOON
Rachel Juszczak Acting Principal
Susie Telsey
FRENCH HORN
Kevin Owen Acting Principal
Dirk Hillyer
TRUMPET
Michael Dobrinski Acting Principal
TROMBONE
Alexei Doohovskoy Acting Principal
TIMPANI
Craig McNutt Acting Principal
PERCUSSION
John Tanzer Acting Principal
HARP
Ina Zdorovetchi Principal
PIANO
Yukiko Oba
PRODUCTION STAFF
Carmen Catherine Alfaro Stage Manager
Mikhaela Mahony Assistant Stage Director
Makenzie Wright Assistant Stage Manager
Úna Rafferty Assistant Stage Manager
Steven Doucette Properties Master
Matt Cost Assistant Lighting Designer
Liz Perlman Costume Director
Gail Buckley Costume Supervisor
Seth Bodie Costume Design Associate
Melinda Abreu Wig-Makeup Artist
Natalia St Jean Surtitle Creator & Operator
PRODUCTION CREW
Brian Willis Head Production Carpenter
Weston Lant First Assistant Production Carpenter
Michael Geoghegan Second Assistant Production Carpenter
Michael Gottke Head Production Electrician
Sumner Ellsworth Lighting Programmer
Donald King First Assistant Production Electrician
Maxx Finn Second Assistant Production Electrician
Emily Picot Head of Production Properties
David Picot First Assistant of Production Properties
Bryan Ritchie Head of Production Audio
Joshua DeChristopher First Assistant Production Audio
Chris Norman Head Production Video
Anthony Norman First Assistant Production Video
Dianna Reardon Head of Production Wardrobe
MUSIC STAFF
Brett Hodgdon‡ Chorus Director
Brendon Shapiro‡ Rehearsal Coach/Accompanist
Nicholas Brown Music Librarian & Orchestra Contractor
‡Boston Lyric Opera Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist Alum
UNIONS
The artists and stage managers employed on these productions are members of the American Guild of Musical Artists. All musicians are members of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.
Many of the scenic, costume, and lighting designers are members of United Scenic Artists, Local USA829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). Stagehands are represented by Local #11 of IATSE. Wardrobe crew are represented by Local #764 of IATSE.
BLO is a member of OPERA America, the national service organization for opera in the US and Canada.
Alma Mahler’s Four Songs and Bluebeard’s Castle
The following synopsis represents a brief literary summary of the original libretto for Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and its framing by Alma Mahler’s Four Songs. BLO’s production presents a new abstract reimagining of this story.
Synopsis by: Allison Chu
From the darkness of the woods, Judith emerges, singing of beauty and light. She meets Bluebeard, who has summoned her to his castle. She has come to live with him, leaving her family and home behind. Judith marvels at the castle’s darkness and gloom. Despite her fear, she proclaims her love for Bluebeard, hoping that her declaration will encourage him to allow light into his lair. As Bluebeard leads her deeper into the castle, she demands that the doors to seven rooms be opened to let in the sunshine. Bluebeard refuses, requesting that Judith love him without question. However, Judith is persistent, and eventually he relents.
At the first door, Judith discovers shackles, daggers, and weapons — instruments of a torture chamber. She notices that the walls are blood-stained but is not deterred from her desire to open all the doors. Bluebeard asks her if she is frightened, and she responds by requesting the keys to the other doors. The second reveals the armory, with piles of cruel arms and armor. As Judith opens the third door, she is delighted by the sight of gold and riches; it is the treasure chamber. The fourth door leads Judith to the garden, which is filled with flowers. However, her joy is interrupted as she realizes that the treasure and the flowers are stained with blood. The fifth door allows Bluebeard to show his kingdom to Judith. Bluebeard asks Judith to embrace him, but she makes no move; there are two more doors still to open.
The sixth door opens to a lake of tears, and Judith begins to understand Bluebeard’s secret. She stands before Bluebeard, asking about his past loves, but he merely repeats his request for her to love him without question. At the final door, Judith reveals his secret: the door hides Bluebeard’s former wives, now made immortal. There are three wives, one each for dawn, noon, and dusk; it is their blood that stained the castle and their tears that filled the lake. Judith is meant to be the wife of the night, and Bluebeard begins adorning her with jewelry. Horrified, she begs Bluebeard to stop, but she surrenders under the weight and takes her place among the other wives. In spite of her ordeal at Bluebeard’s castle, Judith goes on to sing again, retaining her sense of self and her romantic worldview.
CONTENT WARNING
Bluebeard’s Castle | Four Songs is a psychological thriller and may not be suitable for all audiences. Throughout the show there are depictions of weaponry, armor and restraints, and blood. There are both implied and overt instances of violence including implied violence against women and the depiction of a murder. While not explicit, there are implied moments of intimacy between Judith and Bluebeard.
BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE
February 14, 2023
