Dark Blue Beard And His Wives

Elegantly dressed audience is filling the theatre auditorium. Today the musical “Bluebeard” by Mr. Offenbach is on. The last preparations are over, the bell is ringing, and the curtain is lifted…

The performance is interrupted in an unexpected way. The Duke Bluebeard himself intends to share his family life with the audience. The actors obey his will and become involved in a new, spontaneous and improvised performance…

The First wife’s story

“I will nurture her with camel milk…”
Bluebeard idolizes his first wife. Their life is truly idyllic. Until suddenly he realizes that in her heart he occupies only the second place. The first belongs to … musicology.What about him? Having been disappointed in love for the first time, Bluebeard plunges into a whirlpool of new love affairs, meetings, and partings. He is motivated by an ardent yearning to find his true love…

The Second wife’s story
“How can one tolerate this?!”

Bluebeard seeks oblivion in taking a journey. He spends a night at an inn at an unknown station. His roommate is a lady, a local dancer. Bluebeard is charmed by her beauty. He introduces himself and waltzes with her. However – alas! – this love dance doesn’t belong only to him. The sensual beauty turns out to be a light-headed flirt, attractive only in her ballet steps. The rejected Duke tries to stop her in vain. Here comes another monologue – explanation to the audience…

The Third wife’s story
“To sing, one needs to gain some weight!”

For the third time, the Duke is infatuated with a completely different woman, who is powerful, rude, and insatiable. He meets her at a theatre cafe.

Having had a good meal, the dame starts warming up to singing: she is to perform the part of Faust soon. The Duke finds the opera diva attractive in her own way. He marries her. The unbridled diva doesn’t behave herself in a considerate way towards her husband, and treats him as an extra in a crowd scene…

He decides to bury his love for opera in a nice way…

The Fourth wife’s story
“Who doesn’t want peace and quiet?”

The fourth time, Bluebeard marries … a dumb woman. But she also makes music! She is a cello player. Even being dumb, she tries to lecture her husband. The most silent of all wives managed to drive her husband out of his mind with her quiet nagging…

The Fifth wife’s story
“I haven’t slept all night…”

The woman who becomes Bluebeard’s fifth wife is neither young nor gorgeous, and is far from the stage, the fashion, and other novelties. A modest “house cat” wins the Duke’s heart with tasty food and tender care.

Yet this one has a misfortune to reveal to the husband her secret passion. It appears that she is crazy about composing. Trembling with joy, she confesses to her husband in her sweet passion and asks him to listen to her musical drama. Oh, dear! Bluebeard honestly tried to bear the endless floods of female expressivity. However, his strength is exhausted…

The Sixth wife’s story

Nothing is known about her. She died by mistake. She doesn’t take part in the opera.

“Aren’t you bored without us, sweetheart?”

More and more often Bluebeard drowns his disappointment in wine and kills his time in restaurants and cafes.

One of such evenings three girls join the Duke at the table. He orders champagne and makes a toast. “There Lived a Rat in a Cellar”, his drinking-song, sounds like a bitter self-irony. He is a lost soul who dies of love like a rat of poison.

The Duke drinks and sinks into a deep oblivion…

The Seventh wife’s story
«To booze is to booze…»

Bluebeard wakes up at home and learns with surprise that he is married again. His seventh wife sings operetta. Making herself pretty, she performs a piece from a light operetta “A Hundred Kisses of a Princess”. The coquette enjoys an unpretentious tune and her incomparable coloratura.

Tonight she is going to sing in “Bluebeard”. A plan emerges in the Duke’s mind – after the performance his wife will be presented with fragrant orchids… It is nice and artistic.

“This time I won’t stand it for sure!”

And so, the Duke is at the theatre again. The performance of “Bluebeard” is on. The Duke anticipates the imminent denouement and interferes with the course of performance. The musicians stop playing and angrily demand that the crazy man is removed. Bluebeard is thrown out in disgrace.

The Man is left to comment on the situation. All Bluebeard’s wives are here with us tonight – they are safe and sound, they dance and sing to bring us joy and pleasure. Only the Duke, who still did not manage to find his eternal love, is unhappy.