Bluebeard’s Castle – September 2022
Teatro Colòn, Bueons Aires
We see inside the ‘doors’ is interpreted through the psyche of both characters on stage and revealed to the audience in an increasingly all-enveloping vision as a realisation of the dynamic between them dawns and the world of Bluebeard’s Castle that closes in on Judith.
Nina Dunn joined forces with Samuel Wyer to create the Scenography for a new Double Bill at the Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, directed by Sophie Hunter and with conductor, Jan Latham-Koenig. The Double Bill was a thrilling pairing of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins followed by Béla Bartóks Bluebeard’s Castle.
The desire of the producers was to create the works with a focus on minimal set and to rely heavily on projections to deliver narratuve and space. Nina and Sam worked together to come up with the concept for how the space and projections would interact with Sam Wyer also designing the costumes and props and Jack Knowles designing the lighting.
A double bill always offers a rich and varied evening and this pairing truly allowed all team members to demonstrate creatuve range in delivering the narratuives with two very different approaches. The video design for this double bill provided as much a conceptual insight into the journey of the characters as contributing to a sense of spatial setting.
The sisters’ journey across America in Seven Deadly Sins is experienced through a scrapbook-like documenting of locations and events drawing on illustrative and print styles of the composer’s era, culminating in an emotional call to action for freedom of mind and choice. For Bluebeard’s Castle, what
The Seven Deadly Sins
Sam designed a space that provided a rich canvas for projections to play on based on classic photography of the female form that referenced artists such as Helmut Newton with seven painetd flats. The artwork for each of the flats wa sbased on the two protagonists, Ann and Anna, and was shot by Nina and Sam before being handed over to the scenic team at the theatre to transfer to the flattage.
Other key references for the viusual language were Barbara Kruger and Hannah Höch.
Under the astute and incisive hand of director, Sophie Hunter, the work was sharply delivered as a female war cry. It was extremely well recieved and the audinece returned to their seats with a great sense of anticpation for the second half of the double bill: Bluebread’s Castle
Bluebeard’s Castle
This piece provided a contrast to the first Opera in the double bill, being far less grounded in any sort of reality rather moving towards a very conceptual approach. We used a circular stage and ceiling piece combined with a gauze to create the castle space and the doors were chests discovered within the gravel on the ground. Images appeared out of darkness that spoke to a personalised idea of torture for Judith and Bluebear with arc of the emotion realisation within the piece described spatially through expansion of image to marry with the ebb and flow of the musical breadth and dynamic.
Nina worked closely with the in-house team at Teatro Colón to realise the engineering and programming of the show to ensure it would work for the theatre. She hopes to return in 2024 to create a new opera with Sophie.