Bluebeard Quick reference
A Dictionary of Opera Characters (2 ed.)
... ( Bartók : Duke Bluebeard's Castle ). Bass. He has married Judith and brought her to his gloomy castle. Behind various doors she discovers signs of torture and blood. He tries to dissuade her from opening the last door, from behind which come his former wives. Judith has to follow them back through the door to her fate. Bluebeard is left alone. Created ( 1918 ) by Oszkár Kálman...
Bluebeard Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (2 ed.)
...Bluebeard A story found in Perrault ’s collection Contes de ma mère L’Oye ( 1697 ) under the title La Barbe bleue . A man of some wealth has a blue beard which makes him so ugly that women avoid him, but he behaves so pleasantly to the daughter of a neighbouring family that she agrees to marry him. When Bluebeard is absent one night, his wife unlocks a door her husband has forbidden her to open and finds the corpses of Bluebeard’s previous wives inside. Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly and realizing what his wife has discovered states that she too must...
Bluebeard ([Fairy tales]) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Reference and Allusion (3 ed.)
... [Fairy tales] A character in a tale by Charles Perrault . In the story, Bluebeard has a reputation for marrying women who subsequently disappear. He leaves his most recent wife, Fatima, in charge of their house while he is away, instructing her not to open a locked room in the house, although he leaves her the key. Overcome with curiosity, she opens the room, only to discover the bodies of his previous wives. > A cruel or murderous husband; Bluebeard's Castle is mentioned as a place of danger, where grisly deeds are performed This is one of the...
‘Bluebeard’ Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
...‘Bluebeard’ recounts the story of an aristocratic gentleman and his marriage to a young woman whose desire for opulence conquers her feelings of revulsion for blue beards. After a month of married life, Bluebeard declares his intention to undertake a journey. ‘Plagued by curiosity’, Bluebeard's wife opens the door to the one chamber forbidden to her and finds a pool of clotted blood in which are reflected the bodies of Bluebeard's dead wives, hanging from the wall. Horrified, she drops the key and is unable to remove a tell-tale bloodstain from it. Bluebeard...
‘Bluebeard’ Reference library
Maria Tatar
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2 ed.)
...‘Bluebeard’ recounts the story of an aristocratic gentleman and his marriage to a young woman whose desire for opulence conquers her feelings of revulsion for blue beards. After a month of married life, Bluebeard declares his intention to undertake a journey. ‘Plagued by curiosity’, Bluebeard’s wife opens the door to the one chamber forbidden to her and finds a pool of clotted blood in which are reflected the bodies of Bluebeard’s dead wives, hanging from the wall. Horrified, she drops the key and is unable to remove a tell-tale bloodstain from it. Bluebeard...
Bluebeard Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Dance (2 ed.)
...by P. Schenk ) for St Petersburg in 1896 . In 1977 Pina Bausch choreographed Bluebeard—While listening to a tape recording of Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle , a postmodern version in which Bluebeard listens to a tape of Bartók's operatic interpretation of his own...
Bluebeard Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
... . “Bluebeard” was an oral tale until Charles Perrault presented his literary version in Histoires ou contes du temps passé ( 1697 ; English trans., Mother Goose Tales , 1729 , translation by Robert Samber ). It is the tale of a man who lives in opulence and marries a young woman who overcomes her repulsion for his appearance in view of his many riches. He puts her curiosity to test. She discovers he is a serial killer, but she is saved at the point of death by her brothers. The genesis of the tale is debated: some suggested that Bluebeard was...
Bluebeard's Castle Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Music
...Bluebeard's Castle ( A Kékszakállú herceg vára ; ‘Duke Bluebeard's Castle’). Opera in one act by Bartók to a libretto by Béla Balázs after a fairy tale by Charles Perrault (Budapest, 1918...
Bluebeard's Castle Quick reference
The Grove Book of Operas (2 ed.)
...'s Castle [ A Kékszakállú herceg vára (‘Duke Bluebeard's Castle’) ] Opera in one act, op.11, by Béla Bartók to a libretto by Béla Balázs after a fairy‐tale by Charles Perrault ; Budapest, Opera, 24 May 1918 . At the première the singers were Oszkár Kálmán and Olga Haselbeck ; it was conducted by Egisto Tango and produced by Dezsó Zádor . Duke Bluebeard [A Kékszakállú herceg] baritone Judith [Judit] his wife (mezzo‐)soprano Prologue spoken Bluebeard's three former wives silent Setting A hall in Bluebeard's castle in legendary times ...
Duke Bluebeard's Castle Quick reference
A Dictionary of Opera Characters (2 ed.)
...Bluebeard's Castle ( Bartók ). Lib. by Béla Balázs ; 1 act; f.p. Budapest 1918 , cond. Egisto Tango . Legendary times: Judith has married Bluebeard and returned with him to his castle, which is gloomy and damp. There are seven doors in the big hall. She wants to open a door to let in light and warm air. Bluebeard gives her a key. She opens the first door and finds the walls covered in blood—it is a torture chamber. Behind the second door is Bluebeard's armoury, also bloodstained. The third reveals the treasury of jewels and robes (with blood on them),...
Duke Bluebeard's Castle Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Music (6 ed.)
...Bluebeard's Castle ( A Kékszakállù herceg vára [ Hung. ]) Opera in 1 act, Op.11, by Bartók , comp. 1911 , to lib. by Béla Balázs (after fairy‐tale by Perrault ), for sop. and bar. Rev. 1912 and 1918 . First perf Budapest 1918 , Dallas (concert) 1949 , NY 1952 , London 1957...
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
...'s Eighth Wife (film: USA, 1938 ). Starring Gary Cooper as a multi-marrying American millionaire and Claudette Colbert as an impoverished aristocrat, it met with a cool reception. The famed ‘Lubitsch Touch’ seemed to have lost its magic, for the effort to produce screwball comedy foundered on a somewhat contrived plot that even Billy Wilder's screenwriting talents could not rescue. The rich possibilities opened by the title are explored to some extent, but Lubitsch's American tycoon lacks the aggressive edge of his folkloric counterparts and is...
Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife ((film: USA, 1938)) Reference library
Maria Tatar
The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (2 ed.)
...’s Eighth Wife (film: USA, 1938 ) Starring Gary Cooper as a multi-marrying American millionaire and Claudette Colbert as an impoverished aristocrat, it met with a cool reception. The famed ‘Lubitsch Touch’ seemed to have lost its magic, for the effort to produce screwball comedy foundered on a somewhat contrived plot that even Billy Wilder ’s screenwriting talents could not rescue. The rich possibilities opened by the title are explored to some extent, but Lubitsch’s American tycoon lacks the aggressive edge of his folkloric counterparts and is...
Bluebeard Quick reference
A New Dictionary of Eponyms
... The eponym Bluebeard , a noun meaning “a man who successively marries and murders several wives” is the main character in Charles Perrault 's story Barbe Bleue , published in Contes du Temps ( 1697 ). The adjective bluebeard means “not to enter or be explored,” as in the blue-beard room in the house. The character Bluebeard was a murderous tyrant, a habitual wifekiller. Today he might be called a serial wifekiller. Fatima, a pretty young woman, married the sinister Bluebeard against her brothers’ wishes. Before leaving on a business trip, ...
bluebeard Quick reference
New Oxford Rhyming Dictionary (2 ed.)
... • multi-layered • beard , weird • greybeard ( US graybeard) • bluebeard • Iliad • Olympiad • myriad • period • hamadryad , jeremiad, semi-retired, underwired, undesired, unexpired, uninspired • coward , Howard, underpowered, unpowered • froward • leeward , steward • gourd , Lourdes, self-assured, uncured, uninsured, unobscured, unsecured • scabbard , tabard • halberd • starboard • unremembered • tribade • cupboard • unencumbered , unnumbered • good-natured , ill-natured • Richard • pilchard • pochard • orchard • unstructured •...
Bluebeard Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2 ed.)
... a character in a tale by Charles Perrault , who killed several wives in turn for disobeying his order to avoid a locked room which contained the bodies of his previous wives. His last wife, left in his castle on her own with her sister, explores and opens the fatal room, as Bluebead on returning discovers; in the nick of time, she is rescued by her brothers, who arrive and kill Bluebeard. His name is often used allusively to refer to the uncontrollable curiosity which has brought his earlier wives to their...
