Classical Music

‘Opera is mad – it’s crazy… There’s no requirement to be normal. But a well-organised libretto can help.’ Gentle Scots tones, warm accessibility, a gift for communication: Judith Weir speaking. A rare composer whose operas delight critics oversees the revival of ‘Blond Eckbert’ at the Linbury this week. The libretto’s based on one of those sinister German fairy stories – cottages in the wood, magic birds, old ladies with secrets – though Weir’s acknowledged an unexpected influence at work: Alfred Hitchcock. She aimed at ‘a well-told mystery revealed by tiny details. They fit together at the end when the old woman tells her story. One thing she’s forgotten is the name of her dog. Strangely, the man she’s telling the story to knows the name…’ Weir actually prefers the idea of a Hitchcock-era production to the conventional eighteenth century – though the chilling piecing together of the dénouement recalls another of her loves, ‘Oedipus Rex’.

She’s reduced the instrumentation for the Linbury’s intimate space, but scotches the rumour that ENO’s Coliseum was too vast for the work’s 1993 premiere; Weir wanted to create the feeling of loneliness in a vast space. For The Opera Group’s revival under young director John Fulljames the hour-long ‘Eckbert’ is prefaced by two short settings of the Grimms, Weir’s ‘Really?’ and ‘Small Tales, Tall Tales’, a new work by young composer Kenneth Hesketh.With her operas on CD, ‘A Night at the Chinese Opera’ about to receive its Dutch-language premiere and ‘Eckbert’ with three revivals in Germany, Weir opines that ‘I haven’t done too badly. How few revivals are there of any new opera? Financial stakes are so high.’

She remembers ENO had 60 per cent houses for the first ‘Eckbert’ run. ‘They accepted it wouldn’t fill the house but were still proud of it. Now any new piece has to be 90 per cent full as well as a critical success. I feel sorry for opera houses. They have to predict huge fantastic mega-successes and it’s not always the case. The truth is we don’t know – it’s much more exciting.’ We know about Weir; and it’s still exciting.