Balázs produced a spoken performance at which Bartók played some piano pieces on a separate part of the program. A 1915 letter to Bartók's young wife, Márta, (to whom he dedicated the opera) ends: "Now I know that I will never hear it in this life. You asked me to play it for you—I am afraid I would not be able to get through it. Still I'll try so that we may mourn it together." Performance history The success of the ballet The Wooden Prince in 1917 paved the way for the May 1918 première with the same conductor, Egisto Tango. Oszkár Kálmán was the first Bluebeard and the first Judith. Following Balázs' exile in 1919 and the ban on his work there were no revivals until 1936. Bartók attended rehearsals and reportedly sided with the new Bluebeard, Mihály Székely, over the new conductor Sergio Failoni, who was insisting on fidelity to the printed score. Productions in Germany followed in Frankfurt (1922) and Berlin (1929). Bluebeard's Castle was first performed in Italy at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 5 May 1938. The production was conducted by Sergio Failoni and starred Mihály Székely in the title role and Ella Némethy as Judith. The Teatro di San Carlo mounted the opera for the first time under Ferenc Fricsay on 19 April 1951 with Mario Petri and Ira Malaniuk. The work's La Scala debut occurred on 28 January 1954 with Petri and Dorothy Dow. This was followed by several other productions at major opera houses in Italy, including the Teatro Regio di Torino (1961), Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1962), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1966), La Fenice (1967), and the Teatro Regio di Parma (1970). The first American performance was by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra broadcast on NBC Radio's Orchestras of the Nation on 9 January 1949, followed by a concert performance at the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, on 10 January. Both performances were led by conductor Antal Doráti, a former Bartók student. Other sources mention a 1946 concert performance in Dallas. The first fully staged American production was at the New York City Opera on 2 October 1952 with conductor Joseph Rosenstock and singers James Pease and Catherine Ayres. The Metropolitan Opera mounted the opera for the first time on 10 June 1974 with conductor Sixten Ehrling and singers David Ward and Shirley Verrett. The South American premiere was