NEWS

BLOND ECKBERT: DOUBLE BILL directed by ROBIN NORTON-HALE, English Touring Opera, 5 October – 15 November 2024

This double bill is helmed by ETO General Director ROBIN NORTON-HALE and Music Director Gerry Cornelius, with designs by the Linbury Prize-winning Eleanor Bull. 

Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert is a haunting tale of isolation and guilt, based on a supernatural short story by the Romantic author Ludwig Tieck and presented in a new co-production with Britten Pears Arts. Eckbert and Berthe live a life of quiet solitude in their forest home but an unexpected visit from an old friend sets in motion a series of revelations and mysteries. 

As dark secrets surface, Eckbert suspects his world is far stranger than it first appeared, and that the past is maybe best left buried. 

Blond Eckbert is performed alongside Do not take my story for a fairytale, a staging of song cycles and cantatas exploring love, isolation and the terrible wonder of the natural world. Featuring music from the same period that Ludwig Tieck’s story, Der Blonde Eckbert, was written, Do not take my story for a fairytale explores the shaping of the Romantic imagination:

C.P.E. Bach – Klopstocks Morgengesang am Schöpfungsfeste (first 3 movements)
Schubert – Prometheus
Haydn – Solo e pensoso
Beethoven – An die ferne Geliebte
Martines – La tempesta
Schubert – Viel tausend Sterne prangen

Do not take my story for a fairytale will be performed by a period-instrument chamber ensemble and soprano Abigail Kelly, mezzo Amy J Payne, tenor and 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner Matthew McKinney and baritone Mark Nathan.

VENUES & TOUR DATES

Sat 5 Oct – Fri 15 Nov

Hackney Empire

Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Saffron Hall

Buxton Opera House

Exeter Northcott

Lighthouse, Poole

Language

Sung in English with English surtitles

Running Time

2 hours, 15 minutes (including a 30 minute interval)

Warnings

Blond Eckbert Trigger warnings: violence on stage

Production warnings: strobe lights 4 minutes into Act 2 (approximately 37 minutes into the show)