The dangers of digging into a soul’s secrets
By Michael Church [Independent, 25 May 2006]
As the willing bride of a serial wife-murderer, Judith embodies a quintessentially Freudian fantasy: Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle plugs directly into psychoanalysis. And when the curtain rises on John Macfarlane’s richly suggestive set, that exploratory feeling will be reinforced. This one-act, two-character opera may last only an hour, but it’s a huge challenge for the mezzo who stars in it. In Petra Lang, the Royal Opera have found a singer well equal to the challenge.