Bluebeard's Castle, an opera. 6 fine original costume designs in watercolor by noted American artist Robert Perdziola (born 1961), each titled and signed the artist in pencil, with all but 1 dated October 1981
The designs represent the characters Bluebeard, Judith his current wife (2), and his 3 former wives. Sheet size 456 x 305 mm.
Some minor light browning. In very good condition overall.
"Bluebeard's Castle (Hungarian: A kékszakállú herceg vára, literally The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle) is a one-act Symbolist opera ... to a Hungarian libretto by his friend and poet Béla Balázs. Based on the French folk legend, or conte populaire, as told by Charles Perrault, it l... deploys just two singing characters: Bluebeard (Kékszakállú) and his newest wife Judith (Judit); the two have just eloped and she is coming home to his castle for the first time." Wikipedia
"... the one-act opera A Kékszakállú herceg vára (‘Bluebeard’s Castle’) (1911) is, however, a masterful Hungarian emulation of the realism of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Written to an expressionistic libretto by Béla Balázs about the ‘mystery of the soul’, the action of Bluebeard’s Castle is negligible, involving just two singing protagonists, Bluebeard and his new wife Judith, who progress through the opening of the eponymous castle’s seven doors, drawn by the woman’s curiosity. The opera’s climactic turning-point comes at the fifth door, to Bluebeard’s kingdom, after which Judith’s jealousy becomes obsessive, leading to her eventual entombment, along with all Bluebeard’s previous wives, and eternal darkness. Bartók’s work changed the course of Hungarian opera by successfully developing a fluid form of Hungarian declamation of Balázs’s ballad-like text, based largely upon the inflections of parlando rubato folksong." Malcolm Gillies in Grove Music Online
Perdziola, an internationally-recognized set and costume designer for theater, opera, and ballet, has worked extensively throughout the United States at such venues as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Theatre of Chicago, American Ballet Theater, Shakespeare Theater in Washington, Boston Ballet, and Miami Ballet, as well as for various Broadway productions. He has also worked internationally for productions at the Monte Carlo Opera, the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester in Hannover, the Garsington Opera in the United Kingdom, the Finnish National Ballet, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, and the Sydney Opera House. The artist has received three Helen Hayes awards and a Helpmann award; he has also been nominated for numerous additional awards.
Item #39912
Price: $1,800.00 other currencies