Gianni Schicchi | Bluebeard's Castle at Komische Oper Berlin

Two masterpieces of the 20th century, both premiered in that fateful year 1918. The works could hardly be more different, and yet they are combined to form an operatic double bill - black Italian comedy meets Hungarian psycho-drama, staged by the Spanish director Calixto Bieito, master of the dark and the unfathomable.

Little would appear to link Gianni Schicchi and Bluebeard’s Castle - except for their unadorned depiction of the human abyss. That master of melody Giacomo Puccini spices up his story of the family arguing about their inheritance at the deathbed of the patriarch with tearjerkers such as "O mio babbino caro". Béla Bartók penetrates into the depths in the complex landscape of the soul with his dense score. A grim mystery is hidden behind the seven forbidden doors in Count Bluebeard's Castle, and exposing this mystery will prove the downfall of one young woman…

The contrast between the two works constitutes a stimulus which benefits from the staging presented here by Calixto Bieito. Henrik Nánási, General Musical Director of the Komische Oper and renowned Bartók specialist, provides musical direction for this performance. He promises to make it a very special experience for the ears as well as the eyes, with Günter Papendell as Gianni Schicchi plus Asmik Grigorian (who has already appeared in Rusalka and Mazeppa at the Komische Oper) and Gidon Saks as the couple condemned to their fateful encounter at Count Bluebeard's Castle.