ROH - George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence

[Belgrove]

George Benjamin's new opera Lessons in Love and Violence has its world premier at the ROH on 2nd May and will be broadcast on R3 on 2nd June. Benjamin will be conducting.

From the characters appearing in the cast, it looks like a take on Edward II, so plenty of dramatic potential. I'm impressed with the ravishingly scored Written on Skin, and having now seen it several times in the theatre and a concert performance, it grows in stature. So I'm looking forward to seeing this new collaboration with his librettist Martin Crimp. Anyone going?

[underthecountertenor]

George Benjamin's new opera Lessons in Love and Violence has its world premier at the ROH on 2nd May and will be broadcast on R3 on 2nd June. Benjamin will be conducting.

From the characters appearing in the cast, it looks like a take on Edward II, so plenty of dramatic potential. I'm impressed with the ravishingly scored Written on Skin, and having now seen it several times in the theatre and a concert performance, it grows in stature. So I'm looking forward to seeing this new collaboration with his librettist Martin Crimp. Anyone going?

Haven’t got tickets yet, but certainly will.

[Belgrove]

I saw this early in the run and again at the last performance. Unusually my first impressions did not change one jot on the second view. It struck me that it is unusual in having a 'text to music', as Martin Crimp calls it, that is rather better than the music. It is a loose but highly compressed take on Marlowe's Edward II set in seven scenes, the text simultaneously lapidary and oblique, that takes us from Edward's infatuation with Gaveston to his son taking the crown via four murders (the last occurring directly after the final curtain falls). The lessons referred to in the title are primarily for Edward's children (referred to as Boy and Young Girl), and they fall firmly on the side of Violence. It is a skilfully constructed scenario, about the responsibilities attending great power, that is compellingly told.

The music is as terse as the text, scored for a large orchestra augmented by an exotic percussion section which overspilled into the boxes near the stage. The writing for voices did not have the attractiveness or rapture that made Written on Skin immediately appealing (despite its gruesome subject matter), nor was the orchestral writing as arresting. Although the excellent cast performed the work to a very high standard, the only role that made an impression was the relatively small one of Boy, scored for high tenor and beautifully sung by Samuel Boden. This is the one character that has a trajectory, being in a very different place at the end of the work from that at the beginning. The scenes are punctuated by orchestral interludes, but sadly they made little impact and I remember nothing of them.

So after the success of Written on Skin, I fear that lightning has not struck twice in the same place. There is much to admire here, but little to love.

It is being broadcast on R3 on 2nd June. I might give it another go.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence - Opera on 3 - 2.06.18

18:30

George Benjamin's 2012 Written on Skin was a phenomenal worldwide success, so his latest opera, which once more reunites Benjamin with playwright Martin Crimp and director Katie Mitchell, has been hotly anticipated.

Lessons in Love and Violence explores the corrupting influence of duty, power and realpolitik on love, loyalty and affection as Edward II is forced to choose between the conflicting demands of statesmanship and his lover, Piers Gaveston. As the court looks on appalled by Gaveston's excesses and his hold over Edward, the famine-ridden country descends into civil war. Violence begets yet more violence as the ensuing power struggle intensifies between the king and his disaffected courtier Mortimer, his queen Isabel and his brutalised young son. George Benjamin himself conducts an international cast.

Recorded last month at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and presented by Tom Service in conversation with Fiona Maddocks.

King ..... Stéphane Degout (bartione)
Isabel ..... Barbara Hannigan (soprano)
Gaveston / Stranger ..... Gyula Orendt (baritone)
Mortimer ..... Peter Hoare (tenor)
Boy / Young King ..... Samuel Boden (tenor)
Witness 1 / Singer 1 / Woman 1 ..... Jennifer France (soprano)
Witness 2 / Singer 2 / Woman 2 ..... Krisztina Szabó (mezzo-soprano))
Witness 3 / Madman ..... Andri Björn Róbertsson (bass-baritone)
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
George Benjamin (conductor).

[bluestateprommer]

Caught the R3 relay just before the end of the 30-day deadline, as is BSP's wont. Once past having to deal with Tom Service as emcee (even if his gushing enthusiastic style of presentation is ultimately positive in intent rather than negative), but at least with Fiona Maddocks as mild balance with her much calmer (no great challenge, to be sure) demeanor, the performance was a very good one, from both singers and orchestra. Granted that radio relays can adjust for any imbalances in the house between voices and orchestra, the singers generally came through very clearly, and GB's instrumentation generally seemed quite clear, to allow the words to carry through without being overwhelmed. In terms of instrumentation, this was clearly much more rationally scaled compared to Ades' The Exterminating Angel, though again, that's not a difficult comparison, without gratuitous challenges to the singers.

Yet I did harbor some of the same general reservations that Belgrove mentioned in the other thread. The story did feel kind of like "highlights from Edward II", to misparaphrase a certain Mel Brooks movie, in terms of telling the tale. Martin Crimp clearly did not want to make a sort of historical pageant-type of story. But in his attempt to tell his story quickly, it almost felt too short, if that makes sense.

From the ROH's pages on the opera, I noted that one of the co-producers is Lyric Opera of Chicago. This would indicate that Lyric Opera will get the US premiere at some point. It's not on Lyric Opera's roster for next season, so that may mean 2019-2020 at the earliest.

[Belgrove]

'Imagine' on BBC 1 this Tuesday at 10.45pm is a profile of Benjamin's writing and preparation for the performances of Lessons in Love and Violence, which will be broadcast on BBC4 later as part of 'Our Classical Century' series.

[underthecountertenor]

'Imagine' on BBC 1 this Tuesday at 10.45pm is a profile of Benjamin's writing and preparation for the performances of Lessons in Love and Violence, which will be broadcast on BBC4 later as part of 'Our Classical Century' series.

Thanks for this - I would have missed it.

[Bryn]

'Imagine' on BBC 1 this Tuesday at 10.45pm is a profile of Benjamin's writing and preparation for the performances of Lessons in Love and Violence, which will be broadcast on BBC4 later as part of 'Our Classical Century' series.

Tonight's programme is on somewhat later in Northern Ireland and Wales, 23:10 and 23:45 respectively.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

'Imagine' on BBC 1 this Tuesday at 10.45pm is a profile of Benjamin's writing and preparation for the performances of Lessons in Love and Violence, which will be broadcast on BBC4 later as part of 'Our Classical Century' series.

On BBC4 this coming Sunday (21st October) at 9:00pm:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bp9kx0

[ardcarp]

My God. Music on BBC 1...and what an excellent programme it was. Some of the old Arena values there. And I was so amused at the end when the continuity announcer plugged Lessons in Love and Violence on BBC4 this coming Sunday. She said, "You see the BBC does do this sort of thing after all", almost as if she'd been reading The Forum.

[subcontrabass]

On BBC4 tonight at 9 pm.

[ardcarp]

...and people may want to have a look at this if they haven't already:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp1t3v/imagine-2018-george-benjamin-what-do-you-want-to-do-when-you-grow-up

Shown on 16th Oct thus still on i-player.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

...and people may want to have a look at this if they haven't already:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp1t3v/imagine-2018-george-benjamin-what-do-you-want-to-do-when-you-grow-up

Shown on 16th Oct thus still on i-player.

- a very good documentary.

[Bryn]

What did those who have watched/listened to/attended it think? I have only watched the early part via the iPlayer on demand facilty. This because I cannot get BBC FOUR HD via the aerial but can get both a very decent picture and Radio 3 HD Sound quality (320kbps aac) via the iPlayer. I did not find the music that original, but it was easy enough o the ear and well delivered. The libretto and staging I found of more interest.

I intend to watch/listen to the whole thing later.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I did not find the music that original, but it was easy enough o the ear and well delivered. The libretto and staging I found of more interest.

I'd go along with your preliminary assessment Bryn It seemed a very 'efficient' setting of an interesting libretto. A few times I noticed something in the orchestra that was quite striking (though not exactly memorable 'must hear that again'), but generally the play was the thing, not the music. Nothing to really get excited about in the vocal lines.