Barbe Bleue

ÊOn a Žmis sur le personnage fameux, vulgairement nommŽ la Barbe-Bleue, les opinions les plus diverses, les plus Žtranges et les plus fausses. Il nÕen est peut-�tre pas de moins soutenable que celle qui fait de ce gentilhomme une personnification du soleil. CÕest ˆ quoi lÕon sÕest appliquŽ il y a une quarantaine dÕannŽes dans une certaine Žcole de mythologie comparŽe. On y enseignait que les sept femmes de la Barbe-Bleue Žtaient des aurores et ses deux beaux-fr�res les deux crŽpuscules du matin et du soir, identiques aux Dioscures qui dŽlivr�rent HŽl�ne ravie par ThŽsŽe. A ceux qui seraient tentŽs de le croire, il faut rappeler quÕun savant bibliothŽcaire dÕAgen, Jean-Baptiste PŽr�s, dŽmontra, en 1817, dÕune fa�on tr�s spŽcieuse, que NapolŽon nÕavait jamais existŽ et que lÕhistoire de ce prŽtendu grand capitaine nÕŽtait quÕun mythe solaire. En dŽpit des jeux dÕesprit les plus ingŽnieux, on ne saurait douter que la Barbe-Bleue et NapolŽon nÕaient rŽellement existŽ. Une hypoth�se qui nÕest pas mieux fondŽe consiste ˆ identifier cette Barbe-Bleue avec le marŽchal de Rais, qui fut ŽtranglŽ par justice au dessus des ponts de Nantes, le 26 octobre 1440. Sans rechercher avec M. Salomon Reinach si le marŽchal commit tous les crimes pour lesquels il fut condamnŽ ou si ses richesses, convoitŽes par un prince avide, ne contribu�rent point ˆ sa perte, rien dans sa vie ne ressemble ˆ ce quÕon trouve dans celle de la Barbe-Bleue ; cÕen est assez pour ne pas les confondre et pour ne pas faire de lÕun et de lÕautre un seul personnage. Charles Perrault qui, vers 1660, eut le mŽrite de composer la premi�re biographie de ce seigneur justement remarquable pour avoir ŽpousŽ sept femmes, en fit un scŽlŽrat accompli et le plus parfait mod�le de cruautŽ quÕil y ežt au monde. Mais il est permis de douter, sinon de sa bonne foi, du moins de la sžretŽ de ses informations. Il a pu �tre prŽvenu contre son personnage. Ce ne serait pas le premier exemple dÕun historien ou dÕun po�te qui se pla”t ˆ assombrir ses peintures. Si nous avons de Titus un portrait qui semble flattŽ, il parait, au contraire, que Tacite a beaucoup noirci Tib�re. Macbeth, que la lŽgende et Shakespeare chargent de crimes, Žtait en rŽalitŽ un roi juste et sage. Il nÕassassina point par trahison le vieux roi Duncan. Duncan, jeune encore, fut dŽfait dans une grande bataille et trouvŽ mort le lendemain en un lieu nomme la Boutique de lÕArmurier. Ce roi avait fait pŽrir plusieurs parents de Gruchno, femme de Macbeth.

— Matthew Brown developed this project through his founding of TableTopOpera, a group of scholars and performers committed to performing multimedia projects promoting classical music to general audiences. TableTop's production, a reductionist fantasy based on Ariane et Barbe-bleue, played an adaptation of Paul Dukas's original score while panels of P. Craig Russell's popular graphic novel Ariane and Bluebeard, Op. 26 streaked across the auditorium screen. Brown wrote the score and the show was called "a miracle of collaborative creation" thanks to "all editing decisions made in regard not only to Brown's profound knowledge of the epoch and Russell's passion for the opera but of the demanding virtuosos who would be playing it, for the multimedia skills it would require – and for a strong commitment to the integrity of the original score." Th. Emil Homerin produced the show. This book, based off the performance project, already is being marketed through TableTopOpera. Contributors to the volume include an opera singer and instructor from the Metropolitan Opera's production of Bluebeard's Castle, the celebrated comic and graphic artist P. Craig Russell, and scholars in classics, religion, history, women and gender studies, and rare books. — Although the premier of Ariane et Barbe-bleue is frequently lauded as a landmark in operatic history, there is at present no book devoted solely to its history, structure, reception, and cultural implications. — This book will stand out on our music list and contribute to our reputation for publishing books on multimedia topics by touching on such diverse subjects as opera, comic books, and animated movies. Further, it contributes to our list of significant works on women and gender studies. — Our target audience includes students, scholars, and readers interested in musicology, particularly Paul Dukas, French music, and multimedia opera. Other related interests include histories of print, multimedia, and comic works, philosophical discussion of Plato and mysticism, and French symbolist literature.

Blue Beard - By Charles Perrault. "Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passe. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. Gilles de Rais, a 15th-century aristocrat and prolific serial killer, has been suggested as the source for the character of Bluebeard, as has Conomor the Accursed, an early Breton king. "The White Dove," "Mister Fox" and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard.""

Bluebeard is the main character in one of the grisliest and most enduring fairy tales. A serial wife murderer, he keeps a horror chamber in which remains of all his previous matrimonial victims are secreted from his latest bride. She is given all the keys but forbidden to open one door of the castle. This is a major study of the tale and its many variants in English: from the 18th and 19th century chapbooks, children's toybooks, pantomimes, melodramas, and circus spectaculars, to the 20th century in music, literature, art, film, and theatre.