Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned and raped his daughter in a secret bunker, has entered the world of lyric drama.

Daniel Kramer’s new production of Bartok’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” for English National Opera is specific in its references. This contemporary Bluebeard dresses in a central-European, Tegernsee-style jacket. He keeps his family in a concrete cellar. His psychopathic behavior flips on a coin: He’s brutal one minute, and childishly silly the next.

This is the man who brings home a new young wife called Judith. She begs him to open the seven locked doors that she sees around her and to reveal what lies behind them.

There are pluses and minuses to Kramer’s this-represents- that approach. There’s no doubting the modern relevance of the famous fairytale, or its chilling force.

What gets lost, however, is a sense of psychological ambiguity and symbolic mystery. I’ve seen a production of Bartok’s opera in which a simple lighting change creates a sense of horror all the more disturbing for being unspecific. Sometimes suggestion is better than statement.

Clive Bayley (Bluebeard) has a booming voice with an impressive range of colors, and he can threaten, giggle or sneer with equal conviction. Michaela Martens (Judith) also has a powerful larynx, and her journey from naive little wifey to horrified spectator is well conveyed. The only part that fails to ring true is her final conversion into a broken participant in Bluebeard’s horrors.

Edward Gardner’s conducting is on a par with the production. It’s clear, competent and lacking in magical mystery. Rating: **1/2.

Bearded Rites

The production is paired in a double-bill with Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” by Irish choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan.

Why a cash-strapped opera company like ENO, only recently out of the red, is forsaking its singers to fork out truckloads of cash for a large troupe of dancers is beyond me. Especially, when the production is as lackluster as this one.

Keegan-Dolan turns Stravinsky’s rituals of sacrifice and fertility into a low-rent “Riverdance.” A group of bearded men in Irish workers’ outfits switches between mob violence and cheerful high jinks and back again. Their anger inexplicably dissipates in a second. So does any sense of dramatic tension. Rating: *1/2.

Vocal Thrills

There’s brutality of a different nature later this month when the mezzo Cecilia Bartoli comes to the Barbican to present her concert “Sacrificium -- la Scuola dei Castrati.”

Bartoli explores music written in the early 18th century for men who had been surgically gelded as children. Many died; others failed to earn a living as singers and became beggars.

For the few castrati who had talent, the wealth, fame and adulation were staggering. Composers such as Handel, Vivaldi and Gluck wrote some of their most ravishing -- and demanding -- music for castrati.

I met Bartoli a few months ago in Rome, and she told me that she had had to wait until her technique was ready to present castrato arias. Castrati had expanded chests for example, she told me, and could sustain phrases for much longer than other singers.

Listening to her disc “Sacrificium” it’s clear that her already dazzling technique has risen another notch to meet the challenge. It’s likely to be a thrilling concert.

Devilish Tango

The Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) once said that the goal of his life was to “unify serious music and light music, even if I break my neck in doing so.” His scores are by turns hilarious, demanding, beautiful and always audience- friendly without resorting to banality or cliche.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents a festival of Schnittke’s work, at the Southbank Centre and at other venues, from Nov. 15 through Dec. 1.

Highlights include semi-staged excerpts of his opera “The History of Dr. Faustus” (Nov. 18), in which the devil serenades Faust with a tango as he drags him down to hell, and his mystical Symphony No. 3 (Nov. 25). Vladimir Jurowski conducts both concerts.

“Duke Bluebeard’s Castle” and “The Rite of Spring” are in repertory at the Coliseum through Nov. 28. For details, go to http://www.eno.org or call +44-871-911-0200. Cecilia Bartoli’s concert “Sacrificium” is at the Barbican on Nov. 24. See http://www.barbican.org.uk or call +44-20-7638-8891. “Between Two Worlds,” the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Schnittke Festival, runs Nov. 15-Dec. 1. For further details, see http://www.lpo.org.uk/schnittke or call +44-20-7840-4242.

What The Stars Mean:
****      Excellent
***       Good
**        Average
*         Poor
(No stars)Worthless

(Warwick Thompson is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Warwick Thompson, in London, at warwicktho@aol.com.

Last Updated: November 9, 2009 19:00 EST