This autumn, we’re excited to tour three new productions across England in a season of folktales filled with secrets, magic and mystery. Charting the Romantic movement in literature and music from its birth in the late 18th century to its end 100 years later, this season explores how this new and radical way of thinking shaped how we think about ourselves and the world around us.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snowmaiden

The Snowmaiden is jealous of the passionate lives of the mortal villagers living nearby, but discovers her heart of ice means she cannot fall in love. As the Snowmaiden becomes fascinated by a boy in the village, her wish to find true happiness comes with dire consequences.

The Snowmaiden is a classic coming of age tale packed with colour and folk melodies.

You’ll love this opera if you’re a fan of folklore, romantic drama, and fantasy.

The characters at the centre of the action:

• The Snowmaiden: a young girl with a heart of ice, longing for mortal passion

• Tsar Berendey

• Grandfather Frost: the Snowmaiden’s father

• Spring Beauty: the Snowmaiden’s mother

• Lel: the boy that Snowmaiden falls in love with, though he falls in love with Kupava

• Kupava: set to marry Mizgir, she falls in love with Lel

• Mizgir: set to marry Kupava, he falls in love with the Snowmaiden

Composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer in the late 19th century. He was best known for his orchestral compositions, though he also wrote 15 operas, including The Golden Cockerel, which ETO toured in Spring 2022. Most of his work was inspired by Russian folk songs and folklore, as is The Snowmaiden, reflecting his belief in developing a Russian nationalistic style of classical music. He is best known for his symphonic suite Scheherazade, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and Capriccio Espagnol.

Composed during 1880-1881, The Snowmaiden was first performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1882. The Russian libretto was also written by Rimsky-Korsakov, based on the play The Snow Maiden by Alexander Ostrovsky, which premiered in 1873.

The Snowmaiden will be performed in English with English surtitles.

Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert

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.

Is the past best left buried?

Find out in Blond Eckbert, a haunting tale of isolation and guilt based on a supernatural short story by the Romantic author Ludwig Tieck.

You’ll love this opera if you’re a fan of mystery, dark secrets, and the supernatural.

The characters you’ll meet:

• Eckbert: a reclusive man living deep in the mountains

• Berthe: Eckbert's wife and a woman with a mysterious past

• Walther: Eckbert's friend and the couple's only regular visitor

• Bird: our narrator

Composed by Judith Weir

Judith Weir is a British composer known for her choral, orchestral, and chamber music. She often takes inspiration from her Scottish heritage and the natural world. Weir currently serves as Master of the King’s Music, after being appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.

Blond Eckbert will be performed in English with English surtitles.

Do not take my story for a fairytale

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, this work explores the shaping of the Romantic imagination.

Do not take my story for a fairytale will be performed in German and Italian with English surtitles and will feature music composed by Bach, Schubert, Haydn, Beethoven and Martines.

Joanna Marie Skillett & Tatty Hennessy’s The Wellies

Milly is bored! She’s stuck at home; it’s raining outside, and she’s played with all of her toys. She finds an amazing pair of shiny talking wellies and discovers their secret power to splash you to any time and place you desire…

Where will they take her?

Join us for The Wellies to find out! The Wellies is an immersive story for ages 3-7 and audiences with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

You’ll love this opera if you’re a fan of adventure, magic, and interactive stories!

Who you’ll meet:

• Milly: a young girl

• Righty and Lefty: the wellies

• Astronaut and Chef Bon Bon: friends that Milly meets along her adventure

The Wellies was co-created with students at the Vale School in Haringey. Writer Tatty Hennessy and composer Joanna Skillett ran a series of workshops to co-create a story that was not only full of fun and narrative clarity, but one that would enable the cast to engage with all the young people who will experience the opera on tour and their many varied individual needs.

The Wellies will be performed in English with English subtitles

Composer: Joanna Marie Skillett

Writer: Tatty Hennessy

BOOK NOW FOR AUTUMN 2024

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