Christopher Webber writes: >It seems a curious experience to find that staging actually *lessens* >the impact of these great and essentially theatrical masterpieces. >Most audience members find precisely the reverse, especially when >it comes to the music theatre of the 20th and 21st centuries. Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" may be a notable exception. In the liner notes to Solti's London recording thereof, it is described as "one of those rare works which can benefit enormously from being heard on a recording rather than being seen in the theatre; for any visual stage picture, however evocative, will necessarily limit the imagination, and this is a work where the associative power of a free imagination is essential." - seb