Page 494 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024
P. 494
09 June 2024
Blond Eckbert review – Judith Weir’s
bare-bones opera kicks off Aldeburgh
festival
Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh
Despite excellent performances from the singers and chamber ensemble, this stripped-
back version of the folkloric opera failed to convey the horror of its story
Andrew Clements
Sun 9 Jun 2024 16.23 BST
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Amonth after her 70th birthday, Judith Weir is one of the featured composers at this
year’s Aldeburgh festival, which opened with a single performance of English Touring
Opera’s new staging of her third opera, Blond Eckbert. For those who remembered the
premiere at English National Opera in 1994, it must have seemed a distinctly different
work, for this was the “pocket version” of Blond Eckbert, first performed in 2006. The
