• Introduction PART I. Bartók, Balázs, and the Creation of a Modern Hungarian Opera 1. Bartók, Balázs, and the Creation of Bluebeard's Castle 2. Bluebeard as Theater: The Dramatic Heritage of Balázs's Symbolist Play PART II. Music and Drama in Bluebeard's Castle 3. The Music of Bluebeard's Castle 4. Analysis of Individual Scenes - Prologue - Torture Chamber - Armory - Treasury - Garden - Bluebeard's Domains - Lake of Tears - Former Wives 5. Bartók's Revisions to the Opera, 1911-1917 PART III. Contextual Studies 6. The Bluebeard Story in Turn-of-the-Century Literature 7. Judith: The Significance of a Name Appendix. Duke Bluebeard's Castle: Notes on the text by Béla Balázs, circa 1915

...Leafsteadt thoroughly and imaginatively examines Judith's character and the psychological implications of the Bluebeard legend. Writing in an accessible style based on sound scholarship, the author unites literary and musical sources. This unique, high-level study of an important early-20th-century masterpiece should appeal to graduate students, researchers, and faculty.