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, including Schubert's Prometheus and Beethoven's An die ferne Gelibte and 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.