Susan Bullock and Lester Lynch shine in Auckland Bluebeard’s Castle – William Dart

Susan Bullock and Lester Lynch in Bluebeard's Castle, Auckland Arts Festival. Photo / Thomas Hamill

Many of us were disappointed in 2023 when New Zealand Opera’s Bluebeard’s Castle was performed only in Wellington and Christchurch.

Now, the much-missed Bartok opera has come north as one of the Auckland Arts Festival’s premier presentations. English soprano Susan Bullock and American baritone Lester Lynch reprise their original roles, while a triumphant Auckland Philharmonia totally illuminates Bartok’s often-coruscating score under conductor Brad Cohen.

When this adventurous orchestra performed Bluebeard’s Castle in concert 20 years ago, with Margaret Medlyn and Ferenc Cserhalmi, the expressionist operatic hour was introduced by the work’s recited prologue.

On this night, there was no need for such preliminaries; a stage set up as a modest domestic room suggested that the drama of Judith and Bluebeard might be played out in a state house rather than a gothic castle.

Yet director Daisy Evans has kept references to sighing, bleeding castles in her libretto, as Bullock’s Judith struggles with the inevitable onset of dementia, alongside the caring husband of Lynch’s Bluebeard.

The English director’s radical recasting of Bartok’s symbolist grand guignol both convinces and moves us, thanks to the singers’ tremendous teamwork; human emotions rang true in exchanges that had the immediacy of everyday speech.

Bluebeard’s celebrated seven doors became a suitcase, full of reminders. Various objects came out of it, from a golden scarf to a spill of books, introducing actors who portray aspects of Judith’s past. These precious moments are dressed in Bartok’s finest orchestral array, xylophone and celesta shimmer, resounding major chords become sonic thunder thanks to the town hall organ.

Evans revealed in a pre-concert talk that New Zealand audiences have been the only ones to experience this production with a full orchestra, leading one to wonder what it might gain dramatically in a more intimate presentation, with small chamber ensemble.

Yet it was a glorious vindication of the visceral power of opera and, visually, the orchestra itself, looming over the singers, proved more chilling than any foreboding castle, made more so by Jake Wiltshire’s inventive lighting. It was certainly a timely rebuff to Timothee Chalamet for his recent misjudged remarks on the art form’s shortcomings.

The Auckland Arts Festival’s next musical guest is the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on Thursday and Friday, presenting standard Russian repertoire by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov together with less familiar Chinese composers.