Abstract ‘Castle’ Transforms Into Topical Tale

Bartok’s only opera, “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle,” has thrived in concert halls and on disc, but not the theater stage. Too symbolic, too abstract, it has been felt--”I am eagerly looking forward to hearing ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ with closed eyes,” wrote Ernest Lert, who produced the first performances outside Hungary, “and have Bartok’s music stir up again all the beauty and all the terror I felt when I first read that great score.”

Materializing that beauty and terror on the stage does force some hard choices, but it can be done. Witness--one more chance only--the Long Beach Opera production, which opened Sunday afternoon at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts.

Director Roy Rallo’s basic, updated situation is as topical and familiar as the latest sitcom. An emotionally repressed and needy nebbish brings home a strong, younger woman determined to help him get in touch with his inner Duke, with unintended consequences for both.

Given that Bluebeard’s physical castle, in designer Marsha Ginsberg’s surprise-filled set, is a rather seedy apartment, we would seem to have all the makings of a “Seinfeld” episode. No laughs here, however. The real castle that young Judith wants to open up is Bluebeard himself, of course, and revelation always carries a price.

This turns the usual characterization--darkly charismatic wife-killer and innocent young moth attracted to his brooding flame--upside-down. But it works effectively and does not contradict the kaleidoscopic music and symbolist text any more than more conventional interpretations, until the final door is unlocked and Judith fatalistically and here uncharacteristically joins Bluebeard’s veiled collection of wives.

As Judith opens doors, Geoff Korf’s pertinent and evocative lighting works varied magic on the set, until a harsh white glare exposes the set after the fifth door. Rallo takes Bluebeard up some stairs to the most remote point on the stage, his ringing declarations of pomp and pride sounding faint and faded over the noble assertions of the orchestra. The ultimate horror, this production suggests, is that the treasures and wonders of Bluebeard’s inner castle may be all pretense and delusion, as shabby and empty as his material dwelling.

Pavlo Hunka, in his American debut, makes a Bluebeard powerful of voice, perplexed of mien. He has sung an intriguing range of leading baritone roles for major companies in Florence, Berlin and Paris, and seems to have no reservations about this rethought Bluebeard, who retains only the dignity of desperation. He meets the range of this role with different timbres and colors, but consistently articulate focus and heft.

An experienced Verdian and a frequent Turandot, soprano Kathleen Broderick has the physical, emotional and vocal presence for this concept of Judith. She moves easily, but her wide vibrato made nonsense of much of her share of Chester Kallman’s English translation.

The pit was impressively staffed with a very capable orchestra and a conductor who knew what he was doing. Music director of the Vienna Opera Theater, Andreas Mitisek kept the psychological pressure on the singers’ well-paced dialogue, while allowing the orchestra full expressive range. Rallo’s ideas were provocative, generally musical and well-integrated with the physical production, but “Bluebeard” lives largest in the orchestra, and Mitisek served composer as well as director handsomely.

Various electronic addenda to the sights and sounds of the production contributed less effectively, including recorded sighs and an organ neither balanced with the orchestra nor at its pitch. What could be seen clearly of a grainy film sequence by Thomas Wagstaff, projected on the wall of the first room opened, seemed to be externalizing Judith’s response to the torture chamber.

Sharon Barr was the heavy-breathing, wide-eyed narrator of the enigmatically stylized prologue. Kristine Bermeo, Tracie Manzella and Chelsea Walker were the nonsinging walk-on zombies of Bluebeard’s previous wives.

* The Long Beach Opera 1999 festival continues with “The Imaginary Invalid,” tonight at 8 and Sunday, 2 p.m., and Bartok’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle,” Saturday, 8 p.m. Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts, Cal State Long Beach, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach. $40-$75. (562) 439-2580.