BBC Music Magazine
June 2025
Opera Choice

International Classical Music Awards 2026
Nominated - Opera

Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2025
Shortlisted - Opera & Stage

BBC Music Magazine Awards 2026
Shortlisted - Opera & Stage

Gábor Bretz (Bluebeard), Rinat Shaham (Judith)

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Karina Canellakis

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and its chief conductor Karina Canellakis continue their Bartók journey with the composer’s only opera, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, starring mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham (Judith) and bass-baritone Gábor Bretz (Bluebeard). One man, one woman, and a dark castle with seven mysterious doors are all it takes to create a psychological thriller full of suspense and intense emotion. Karina Canellakis and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra received a Grammy nomination for their recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and 4 Orchestral Pieces, which BBC Music Magazine praised as “enticing and brilliantly engineered”, while Gramophone lauded how orchestra and conductor “paint the soundscapes with both finesse and fire.” For Canellakis, Bartók’s opera recorded here is “an homage to life itself, to life’s brevity and fleeting beauty, to being human, to love, and to death.”

Internationally acclaimed for her emotionally charged performances, technical command and interpretive depth, Karina Canellakis has become one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. She returns to PENTATONE as Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra continuing their Bartók cycle that began with the aforementioned Concerto for Orchestra in 2023. Rinat Shaham and Gabor Bretz are sought after by the world’s greatest opera houses and have long-standing experience performing Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with various orchestras and conductors around the world.

"Gábor Bretz as Bluebeard and Rinat Shaham, his Judith, are magnificent...Karina Canellakis conducts the orchestra as if her life depended on it Philharmonic as if her life depended on it, understanding the aching angularity of Bartók ’s score and exploring every musical shiver and chordal creak." - BBC Music Magazine, June 2025