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English Touring Opera: Double Bill

Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert/ Do not take my story for a fairytale

Fri 15 Nov 2024

English Touring Opera brings you a double bill of two shorter operas in one night.

Sung in English with English surtitles.

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 may be 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, including Schubert’s Prometheus and Beethoven’s An die ferne Gelibte, as well as a cantata by Mariana Martines, Do Not Take My Story For A Fairytale explores the shaping of the Romantic imagination.

It 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.

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.

Receive 20% off your total price when you book for both The Double Bill and The Snowmaiden productions in the same transaction.

Free pre-show talk available from 6:30pm – 7:15pm (Limited availability)

To book please add a pre-show ticket to your basket during checkout.