Page 498 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024
P. 498
09 June 2024
REVIEW – BLOND ECKBERT AT ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL
2024
9TH JUNE 2024
The Aldeburgh Festival 2024 opened with English Touring Opera’s production of Judith
Weir’s Blond Eckbert on Friday night at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Suffolk.
Directed by Robin Norton-Hale and conducted by Gerry Cornelius, the production provided a
short sharp injection of psychological torment, underpinned by an evocative score by
composer Judith Weir whose vocal writing draws much from Benjamin Britten’s approach to
opera.
Weir’s music is being celebrated at the 75th Aldeburgh Festival this year. Her ‘pocket’
arrangement of her 1994 opera seemed like a fitting opening for the milestone Festival.
William Morgan (Walther), Flora McIntosh (Berthe), Simon Wallfisch (Eckbert), Aldeburgh
Festival 2024
Husband and wife Eckbert and Berthe’s lives are upended when a lifelong friend visits their
secluded forest hideaway. Encouraged by her pensive husband Eckbert, Berthe shares her life
story—a tale of distant parents, a forest-bound caregiver with a jewel-laying bird, wealth that
