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
- Sat 5 Oct, 7:30pm BOOK NOW
Snape Maltings Concert Hall
- Fri 11 Oct, 7:30pm BOOK NOW
Saffron Hall
- Fri 18 Oct, 7:00pm BOOK NOW
Buxton Opera House
- Fri 25 Oct, 7:30pm BOOK NOW
Exeter Northcott
- Fri 8 Nov, 7:30pm BOOK NOW
Lighthouse, Poole
- Fri 15 Nov, 7:30pm BOOK NOW
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)