in Buenos Aires's Teatro Colón, 23 September 1953 conducted by Karl Böhm. Bluebeard's Castle received its French premiere on 17 April 1950 in a radio broadcast on Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française. Ernest Ansermet conducted the performance, which featured Renée Gilly as Judith and Lucien Lovano as Bluebeard. The first staged production of the work in France was at the Opéra national du Rhin on 29 April 1954 with Heinz Rehfuss in the title role, Elsa Cavelti as Judith, and conductor Ernest Bour. The first performance in Paris was at the Opéra-Comique on 8 October 1959 with soprano Berthe Monmart and bass Xavier Depraz. The production was directed by Marcel Lamy and used a French translation by Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi. The London première took place on 16 January 1957 at the Rudolf Steiner Theatre during the English tour of Scottish composer Erik Chisholm directing the University of Cape Town Opera Company whose Désirée Talbot was Judith. A few years earlier, Chisholm had premièred this work in South Africa at the Little Theatre in Cape Town. The work was first performed in Japan on 29 April 1954 by the Youth Group of the Fujiwara Opera Company (under conductor Yoichiro Fukunaga with piano accompaniment). The opera was presented with full orchestra in the 348th regular concert of the NHK Symphony Orchestra on 16 March 1957. The opera's Austrian premiere took place at the Salzburg Festival on 4 August 1978 with conductor George Alexander Albrecht, Walter Berry and Katalin Kasza. In Israel, the opera premiered on 15 December 2010 at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. Vladimir Braun was Bluebeard and Svetlana Sandler sang Judith. Shirit Lee Weiss directed and Ilan Volkov conducted. The sets, originally used in the Seattle Symphony's 2007 performance were designed by glass artist Dale Chihuly. In 1988 the BBC broadcast an adaptation of the opera as Duke Bluebeard's Castle directed by Leslie Megahey. It starred Robert Lloyd as Bluebeard and Elizabeth Laurence as Judith. The Taiwanese première, directed and conducted by Tseng Dau-Hsiong, took place in the National Theater in Taipei on 30 December 2011. In January 2015, the Metropolitan Opera presented its first production of Bluebeard's Castle in the original Hungarian, starring Mikhail Petrenko as Bluebeard and Nadja Michael as Judith. In 2022 the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires broadcast a staging directed by Sophie Hunter. Roles Bartók includes the Castle on the dramatis personæ page. Synopsis Place: A huge,