Page 139 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

Werther, with his performance in the former role described by the Evening
Standard as “one of the most beautifully sung accounts of the role that I

have come across”. Soprano Aoife Miskelly sings the role of Bird, a role she
recently performed to critical acclaim at Potsdamer Winteroper in 2023 –
Opera magazine stated that she “sang most engagingly as Bird, her clear
voice a constant joy”.

The cast is completed by “vocally dazzling” (Independent) mezzo-soprano
Flora McIntosh as Berthe, and tenor William Morgan – recently seen as
Freddy in the UK premiere of Jonathan Dove's Marx in London - who
performs the roles of Walther, Hugo and Old Woman.

Blond Eckbert is a haunting tale of isolation and enigma, based on a
supernatural short story by the Romantic author Ludwig Tieck. ETO's
General Director Robin Norton-Hale will direct the production, and Gerry
Cornelius, ETO's Music Director, conducts.

Blond Eckbert will also tour across the country as part of a double-bill in
ETO's Autumn 2024 season, which also includes a new production of
Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden – further details and venues will be
announced in due course.

Robin Norton-Hale, General Director of English Touring Opera, said: “Blond
Eckbert's desire for human connection leads him to share his darkest
secrets, setting in motion a train of paranoia and guilt. A Hitchcockian
sense of foreboding pervades Judith's wonderfully precise and evocative

score from the first phrase, and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in
it with this talented team.”

English Touring Opera also brings two new productions to Snape Maltings
Concert Hall as part of its Spring 2024 season, with Stravinsky's The Rake's

Progress and Puccini's Manon Lescaut on 22 and 23 March respectively –
more information and tickets can be found on the ETO website.

Tickets for Blond Eckbert at the Aldeburgh Festival are now on sale on the

Britten Pears Arts website.