Fantastique

André de Ridder conducts a night of French fantasy, perfume and unbridled drama.

Ravel’s La valse begins in the mists of memory, gradually revealing a glittering Viennese ballroom before the dance spirals towards a thrilling, grotesque collapse. British soprano Katherine Manley then joins the NZSO for Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées, arranged for orchestra by Brett Dean, bringing exquisite colour and nuance to Paul Verlaine’s poetry.

Berlioz’s sensational Symphonie fantastique completes the programme with one of classical music’s wildest stories: a lovesick artist descends through obsession and intoxication into nightmare, execution and a demonic witches’ sabbath. Groundbreaking, cinematic and emotionally extreme, this landmark Romantic symphony ends at the guillotine.

Expect ravishing detail, fevered imagination and orchestral storytelling at its most spectacular.