About

Judith Weir's Blond Eckbert is a haunting tale of isolation and enigma, based on a supernatural short story by the Romantic author Ludwig Tieck and presented in a new production directed by Robin Norton-Hale and conducted by ETO Music Director, Gerry Cornelius. 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 Tieck's story Der Blonde Eckbert was written, by composers including Beethoven, Haydn and Martines, Do not take my story for a fairytale explores the shaping of the Romantic imagination, with its intense emotional responses to nature. It will be performed in an arrangement for period-instrument chamber ensemble and by soprano Abigail Kelly, mezzo Amy J Payne, tenor and 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner Matthew McKinney and baritone Mark Nathan.