Strauss: Enoch Arden

Music by Richard Strauss. Words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Enoch Arden tells the heart-wrenching story of a shipwrecked sailor who returns home after many years to find that the world, and his loved ones, have long given him up for dead. A true melodrama; Strauss' music digs deep into the psychological turmoil of Enoch, his wife Annie, and Philip, their shared childhood friend.

Famously recorded by Claude Rains and Glenn Gould, here the piece's wonderfully dynamic relationship between spoken voice and piano is brought to life by music theatre actor Dale Rapley, and Opera North's Head of Music, Martin Pickard, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Strauss' birth.

'Tennyson's small epic... so tear-jerking, is a verbal treasure' (BBC Music Magazine).