Ravel’s Mother Goose & Schoenberg’s Erwartung

June 23, 2025, 10:00 pm

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woman in blue and white patterned dress leans against brown wall
Mary Elizabeth Williams (Photo: Karen Almond)

Ravel’s enchanting Mother Goose characters come to vivid life in a performance conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Schoenberg described his monodrama Erwartung as a nightmare, a moment of psychological trauma enacted in slow motion. As The Woman, soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams leaps and plunges between emotional extremes: hopeful and terrified, enraged and miserable.

Playlist

Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose – Music for the Ballet
Alonzo King LINES Ballet

Arnold Schoenberg: Erwartung, Opus 17
Mary Elizabeth Williams, soprano