Duke Bluebeard's Castle | Opera review

Coliseum, LondonIn Daniel Kramer's staging, Bartók's only opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, makes the queasiest possible first half to ENO's double bill. After it, Fabulous Beast's transformation of The Rite of Spring into an Irish fertility ritual seems almost cosily reassuring.The opera opens weakly, with Clive Bayley's stiff-backed, middle-European Bluebeard seen cajoling, almost forcing Michaela Martens's rather helpless Judith out of the dimly lit street into the labyrinthine passages of h...

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