“In Kenza Koutchoukali’s detailed direction of the characters, their love was above all tragic, and a profound humanity shimmered through the extraordinary circumstances” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ NRC

site specific festival production

Béla Bartók

conductor Antony Hermus
scenography Sanne Oostervink
light design Teus van der Stelt
dramaturgy and new prologue Wout van Tongeren

Music Summer 2022

“What played before the eyes of the audience was a human drama, timeless, full of symbolism and with enough room for own interpretations of the straying human soul (..)” Operamagazine

Honorable mention in the nominations for Operamagazine Opera of the Year award 2022

“How close an opera can get to real life became clear once more after the performance: standing in the blue light of the enclosing summer night it was impossible to not think about the many doors of our human castles and wonder: but where is the stage? Outside, or within?” Operamagazine

“A rare evening it was. Sublime even. It doesn’t occur that often in the history of opera that everything comes together. Yesterday it did, when I saw Bluebeards Castle in a sizzling performance (..) The direction of Kenza Koutchoukali detailed, precise and so clear (..). The performance had a perfect opening; a newly written prologue by dramaturg Wout van Tongeren” Radio 4