Allan Clayton: Winterreise

Embark on a relentless vision through soul and mind with tenor Allan Clayton and Aurora, in a new, immersive Orchestral Theatre production of Winterreise, re-imagined for chamber orchestra by Hans Zender.

“A work like Winterreise is an icon of our musical tradition, one of the great masterpieces of Europe. Do you do it justice if you only present it in the form that is usual today – two gentlemen in tails, Steinway, a usually very large hall –?” asks Hans Zender. Through his arrangement of Schubert’s much-loved song cycle, re-imagined for chamber orchestra, he creates a new but equally moving perspective on this masterpiece.

And Aurora doesn’t think this should stop at the music. Schubert’s profound song cycle perfectly lends itself to a new theatrical staging with its universal themes of loneliness, heartbreak, love and nature, which are only intensified through Zender’s use of the orchestra. In these two performances, Aurora adds theatrical touches and an immersive lighting design to draw you out of the concert hall and inside the mind of the haunted antihero.

“A triumph, which showed a new version of a masterpiece doesn’t have to be faithful to be true”. (The Telegraph)