The Stage Works of Bela Bartok

Hungary's political and cultural ferment at the start of the twentieth century produced geniuses such as the literary critic Gyorgy Lukacs, the writer (and later film theorist) Bela Balazs and the composer Bela Bartok. Their determination to participate in contemporary Western art movements was coupled with an enthusiasm for the folk traditions of a disappearing world. This guide introduces Bartok's stage works, where these influences merge: the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, and the ballets The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin. Composer Julian Grant describes the score for Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a symbolist version of the Bluebird myth. Included in this volume are also the ballet scenarios which originally caught his imagination, and discussions of the choreographic potential and musical qualities of the scores; Ferenc Bonis indicates the increasing appeal for Bartok of the natural world, against the cataclysm of the First World War. Just as they make a powerful triple bill in performance, a comparative study of these works gives an insight into the issues of sexuality, humanity and artistic creativity which they raise.