When Love Speaks Back: A Dichterliebe Dialogue

Ludwig Obst  tenor  |  Gavin Roberts piano  |  Lottie McCrindell poet  |  Patrizia Longhitano poet  |  Clara-Læïla poet

When Love Speaks Back: A Dichterliebe Dialogue reimagines one of the great Romantic song cycles through a contemporary female poetic lens. Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe is presented complete, interwoven with readings by three contemporary female poets who perform their own love poems, giving voice to the woman left unheard in Heinrich Heine’s original texts.

Their poems offer new perspectives on love, romance and desire, reframing the emotional narrative of the cycle. The evening concludes with Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, whose songs of wandering and resignation feel like the inevitable continuation of Schumann’s story of love and loss.