Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique – from memory // Aurora Orchestra

Revisit Aurora’s landmark Orchestral Theatre staging of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique at the 2019 BBC Proms.

Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique (from memory)

Mathew Baynton – actor
Nicholas Collon – conductor
Jane Mitchell & James Bonas – directors
Kate Wicks – production designer
Will Reynolds – consultant designer
Cydney Uffindell-Phillips – movement consultant
Concept and script by Jane Mitchell

Waltz through a glittering ball, enter a feverish dream, march to your own execution, and spin into dark delirium at a witches’ sabbath. Take on the opium-infused visions of a tortured artist haunted by unrequited passion in this Orchestral Theatre production of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique.

Inspired by the composer’s own romantic infatuation with a young actress, this epoch-making work unfolds as a cinematic fantasy full of wild imagination and demonic madness – by turns gorgeous and grotesque.

Aurora Orchestra and actor Mathew Baynton (Horrible Histories, Ghosts) invite you to a creative orchestral journey through Berlioz’s hallucinatory tale of ecstasy and despair, passion and obsession. This unique concert interweaves a memorised performance of the Symphonie fantastique with theatrical design, lighting, movement and Berlioz’s own words about his music, alongside a presentation of the work’s musical ideas with live excerpts.

'The performance was as vivid to the ear as it was to the eye.’ ★★★★ The Guardian

Filmed live at the Royal Albert Hall on Thursday 12 September 2019.
Orchestral Theatre staging concept by Aurora Orchestra.
Footage courtesy of BBC Proms.

To explore more Aurora Play broadcasts and find out more about our memorised performances, visit www.auroraorchestra.com. #AuroraPlay

00:00:00 Introduction with Mathew Baynton and Nicholas Collon
00:23:42 Symphonie fantastique (memorised) I. Rêveries—Passions (Reveries—Passions)
00:39:18 Introduction to Movement II
00:41:04 II. Un Bal (A Ball)
00:47:40 Introduction to Movement III
00:50:59 III.Scène aux champs (Scene in the field)
01:07:33 Introduction to Movement IV
01:08:54 IV. Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold)
01:15:52 Introduction to Movement V
01:17:10 V. Songe d'une nuit du sabbat (Dream of the Night of the Sabbath)