DUKE BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE

2024 English National Opera Composer Béla Bartók Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya Design Rosanna Vise Costumes Sarah Bowern Light Ian Jackson-French Assistant director Crispin Lord Cast Allison Cook / John Relyea / Jennifer Johnston / Crispin Lord Production photographs Nirah Sanghani

“Erotic, unsettling and beautifully staged” The Guardian

“Director Joe Hill-Gibbins and his design team use simple but extraordinarily vivid means to conjure complex emotional responses to each visual shock and its dark implications” The Stage

“Presenting a horror story meets nightmare dinner party, Hill-Gibbins’s detailed direction is full of clever touches… The body language between husband and wife is sometimes tender, sometimes cruel; the suggestion is that this isn’t just the first night of their marriage playing out, but every night.” The Times