Page 499 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

proves quite the temptation for Berthe who, in pursuit of adulthood and independence,
abandons her living arrangement, taking the bird, the jewels and the family dog, the name of
which to this day Berthe cannot recall.

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It’s the couple’s unexpected houseguest Walthe who freaks out the couple by recalling the
dog’s name, setting them on a path to self-realization via an uncomfortable truth about their
true identities as brother and sister. Tragic consequences ensue. Warning: there aren’t many
laughs here.

Flora McIntosh (Berthe) in Blond Eckbert, Aldeburgh Festival 2024

Judith Weir’s libretto, based on the 18th-century poem Ludwig Tieck (seen as the beginning
of German romanticism), is in its compact form at least a clinical analysis of a dark tale of
psychological torment written a staggering 100 years before Freud. Weir sets this in a
characteristically forensic fashion drawing on her own Jungian influences with signature
compositional efficiency.

The story cracks on at quite a pace (running time 70 minutes) meaning the direction needs to
be as forensic as the score. Director Robin Norton-Hale’s production doesn’t disappoint,
blending film noir, Hitchcock, and post-war chic. German romanticism’s fascination with
nature is seen in the forest setting complete with giant birch trees that reduced man and
woman and fragile, vulnerable and naive.