Duke Bluebeard's Castle

1989-04-12

This highly acclaimed film version of Béla Bartók's searing psychological opera, performed by Robert Lloyd and Elizabeth Laurence, won the 1989 Prix Italia Music Prize. Bartók's short opera, one of the composer's most impressive early works, tells the macabre legend of Duke Bluebeard, who brings his young wife Judith to live in his remote castle. The dramatic intensity increases as sinister secrets are gradually unveiled, bringing the opera to its haunting conclusion.