Blaubart: Oper von André-Modeste Grétry

In the organizer's words:

Who is this mysterious Bluebeard, whose bunch of keys has fired the imagination for centuries? A rich nobleman - charming and menacing at the same time. And then there is a young woman who is not satisfied with fine words. She wants to know what lies behind the closed doors. Curiosity becomes a test of courage - and the fairy tale turns into a comedy thriller.

Grétry's "Bluebeard" is a real rediscovery - and the highlight of the Rheinsberg festival summer as a large open-air production! First performed in Paris in 1789, the work is set in the middle of the revolutionary year in which old certainties were dissolving and new ideas had their price. Prince Henry was in Paris at the time and attended the premiere. Shortly afterwards, he left France, which was to enter a new era a few months later with the storming of the Bastille. In Rheinsberg, on the other hand, the upheavals of the revolution were palpable as emigrants from France found refuge - making Grétry's "Bluebeard" the operatic jewel of a turning point.

The libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine merges Perrault's famous fairy tale with the legend of "La Dame de Fayel" - and makes the work sparkle as a comedy despite the dark setting. But beneath the surface, the material is sharply drawn: Bluebeard is a cruel man and pays for mistrust and abuse of power with his life in the end - a twist that could hardly be misunderstood in the context of 1789. And this is precisely where "Bluebeard" touches on the seasonal motif "On a Journey of Discovery with Henry and Wilhelmine": it is about curiosity as a virtue - and about the question of what remains hidden behind facades. Bluebeard's bunch of keys becomes a symbol of which doors can be opened - and which are better left closed...

Introduction
60 minutes before each performance, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Liedtke - President of the Brandenburg State Parliament and founding director of the Rheinsberg Music Academy - will give an introduction to the workwith those involved in the production.