From the autumn of 1861, Liszt spent more and more time in Rome, where his interest turned towards church music. In 1862 he completed his first oratorio, The Legend of St Elizabeth. Liszt had long been intrigued by the life of the Hungarian princess, and he even visited her former home, the castle of Wartburg, in the company of the Grand Duke of Weimar. ‘My relationship to St Elizabeth is particularly tender. Like she, I was born in Hungary, and I spent twelve years that were key to my life and career in Thuringia, very close to the castle of Wartburg, where she lived, and to Marburg, where she died.’
The title role of the oratorio will be sung by the illustrious Swedish soprano, Elisabet Strid who regularly performs on opera stages around the world as one or another of Wagner and Strauss’ heroines – Sieglinde, Senta, Isolde, Salome – and, of course, as the muse of the minstrels’ tournament on the Wartburg, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. The Hungarian National Philharmonic will be conducted by their music director, György Vashegyi.