23.02.2025

ELEANOR LYONS with the Deutschen Radio Philharmonie

Following her successful debut in spring 2023 with orchestral songs by Antonín Dvořák, Eleanor Lyons is now once again a guest of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in the Fruchthalle Kaiserslautern, this time with the rarely heard song cycle ‘Les Illuminations’ for soprano and strings by Benjamin Britten on texts by Arthur Rimbaud. Arthur Rimbaud lived a short, unsettled and turbulent life as a poet, often on the brink of starvation, often homeless, sometimes alongside his lover, sometimes alone, often in miserable circumstances. His collection of poetry ‘Les Illuminations’ is linguistic painting that is captivating, but still floats and floats away - the colourful vision of a mystic. Britten has set seven of these enigmatic poems to music to create a surreal, evocative and emotional dream journey.

From Kaiserslautern, Eleanor Lyons' calendar leads directly to Melbourne, where she will take on the soprano part in Mahler's Second Symphony, the “Resurrection Symphony”, with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Jaime Martín, with which she will also make her debut at Turin's Teatro Regio on 14 March under the direction of Aziz Shokhakimov.

A second leg of the European tour that began last December with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe will once again be dedicated to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the second half of March - this time with stops at the Théâtre Auditorium in Poitiers, the International Arts Centre deSingel in Antwerp, the Paris Philharmonie, the Congress Center in Heidelberg, the Philharmonie Essen and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart.

Finally, Eleanor Lyons will also make her debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin on 4 April under the direction of Philipp Herreweghe. The programme includes Dvořák's Stabat Mater.

Cast

Eleanor Lyons, soprano
Michael Schønwandt, conductor
German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Markus Brock, moderator