Priscilla Jackman. Photo: Phil Erbacher.
DREADFUL things happen to women in opera – they might be immured in a mausoleum, run though by a jealous lover or left to die in a sack, but nowhere is their fate sealed more grimly than in Béla Bartók’s only opera, “Bluebeard’s Castle”.
Not any more, as a new production of four performances only by Opera Australia is about to show.
“There’s no other way to see ‘Bluebeard’ but as a misogynistic work,” says associate director Priscilla Jackman, who joins director Andy Morton in staging the show for OA.
“But looked at in the light of day during 2021, it feels very timely.”