Music: Bluebeard on the Couch

Before Freud, Bluebeard was a fairytale monster with a pleasantly chilling tendency toward murder. After Freud, Bluebeard's libido became a subject for reexamination. The late composer Bela Bartok and Librettist Bela Balasz were quick to see the possibilities, in 1911 put the theory into the form of a one-act opera, Bluebeard's Castle. It was staged for the first time in the U.S. last week by the New York City Opera.

Wife Judith, the fourth, enters the castle of Bluebeard's soul, is consumed with curiosity about the seven doors to his subconscious. She coaxes...

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