Written on Skin at the ROH

[Belgrove]

This receives its premier at Covent Garden next month under the baton of the composer. It is a joint production with a number of companies, the first being the Aix en Provence Festival last summer. The reviews were pretty positive, especially for George Benjamin's score and Martin Crimp's libretto. It's good to see the Royal Opera continuing to actively promote new works.

I do not know if R3 is planning a broadcast of this. One hopes it will. The once informative Opera on 3 webpage no longer has details of the full season.

I'm attending the last show in the run. Although first nights have a frisson, the associated nerves can spoil the event, and there are sometimes too many freeloaders in attendance who want to make a statement once it comes to the curtain calls. By comparison, last nights can have that sense of risk and abandonment missing in earlier performances.

Is anyone else going?

[David-G]

Just wondering who you mean by the "first night freeloaders"? At recent first nights I have been to (Rusalka, Onegin) the expressions of disapproval have been well deserved.

[Belgrove]

Just wondering who you mean by the "first night freeloaders"?

Those who are given tickets by the management or members of the cast. Their enthusiasm for this or that performance can be unwarranted.

At recent first nights I have been to (Rusalka, Onegin) the expressions of disapproval have been well deserved.

I don't doubt it having seen the reviews here and elsewhere. But more importantly David-G, are you going to see Written on Skin?

Music Matters on 2nd March will be running a feature about it.

[Barbirollians]

I find booing a production out of order and offensive to the singers, conductor and orchestra whose fault it isn't.

[Flosshilde]

I wouldn't boo a production unless it was the first night, & the director etc came on stage at the end. I was at the first night of a production of Magic Flute by SO which was truly awful - not a redeeming feature. The cast & musicians were enthusiastically applauded. When the production team arrived it changed to almost universal boos - much to their surprise! Their smiles rather rapidly disappeared.

[David-G]

I find booing a production out of order and offensive to the singers, conductor and orchestra whose fault it isn't.

Booing is completely alien to me, and I find it very difficult to do it. But sitting through a great opera which has been wantonly and deliberately ruined by the producer can drive me to an intense fury in which in very exceptional circumstances (e.g. Rusalka) I may join the booers. There is no risk of being offensive to the singers, orchestra or conductor as the boos are specifically directed at the production team as they come on stage. All that the singers have to suffer from me is a lack of enthusiasm in applause, or perhaps no applause at all; this may be hard on them, but I find it difficult to applaud when I have been thoroughly alienated and have spent the last several hours looking at my watch and waiting for the torture to end. Even in these circumstances I can applaud the orchestra enthusiastically. It was noticeable that at Onegin the audience as a whole reacted in the same way that I did. The applause was pitiful, except for the orchestra.

[David-G]

But more importantly David-G, are you going to see Written on Skin?

Indeed I am, on March 11th. I am hoping that I will enjoy at as much as, or maybe even more than, The Minotaur. My finding enjoyment in the latter astonished me, as my previous encounters with Birtwistle left me stone cold and shellshocked. I did however find it a very cold piece, with very little human sympathy or warmth.

[Barbirollians]

Booing is completely alien to me, and I find it very difficult to do it. But sitting through a great opera which has been wantonly and deliberately ruined by the producer can drive me to an intense fury in which in very exceptional circumstances (e.g. Rusalka) I may join the booers. There is no risk of being offensive to the singers, orchestra or conductor as the boos are specifically directed at the production team as they come on stage. All that the singers have to suffer from me is a lack of enthusiasm in applause, or perhaps no applause at all; this may be hard on them, but I find it difficult to applaud when I have been thoroughly alienated and have spent the last several hours looking at my watch and waiting for the torture to end. Even in these circumstances I can applaud the orchestra enthusiastically. It was noticeable that at Onegin the audience as a whole reacted in the same way that I did. The applause was pitiful, except for the orchestra.

Fascinating - the audience went wild for Onegin last night . I suppose we were spared Kaspar. H

[Belgrove]

George Benjamin's work received its world premier at the Aix en Provence festival last year, the same production has just finished its run at Covent Garden, but it will surely be returning before long. It is a work of music theatre of the highest quality and importance.

The plot is superficially simple. A twelfth century Protector commissions a scribe/illustrator - The Boy - to make an illuminated manuscript celebrating The Protector's life, power and possessions, which include his wife - Agnés. Agnés and The Boy become increasingly drawn to each other, the jealous and violent Protector murders The Boy and feeds his heart to Agnés as a prelude to killing her - she thwarts him through committing suicide. Typical overwrought operatic fare, you may think. The twist is that in addition to these characters are a host of Angels who occupy the present, but who travel back and forth in time to manipulate the principal characters into more extreme emotions and acts, moreover, The Boy is one of these Angels. The Angels are conducting a forensic experiment into the human condition via the medium of The Boy's enacted text. Written On Skin refers to both the medium by which the book is created, and the human emotions and acts depicted by the opera itself.

Martin Crimp, a previous collaborator with Benjamin, has written a 'text' that uses heightened language which is tersely dense and freighted with multiple interpretations, yet is lucid and, crucially, singable. He describes it as 'a hot story in a cold frame', a perfect précis. It is unlike any other operatic text I know, and it works like a precision machine in serving to wind the tension of the drama to unbearable heights, and delivering images of beauty and violence in equal measure.

What does it sound like? Benjamin wrote the music with the particular principals in mind, Christopher Purves, Bejun Mehta and Barbara Hannigan as The Protector, Boy and Agnés respectively. All give performances that are riveting in their theatrical content, and glorious for their vocal contributions. The vocal writing is lyrical and frequently ravishingly beautiful. The vocal lines in the 'love duet' between The Boy and Agnés, sinuously entwine and interpenetrate, some of the sexiest vocal writing since Berg. Indeed, Benjamin cites Wozzeck and Pelleas as being influences, which is evident, but in no way does it pastiche these.

The orchestra is large, with exotic percussion section. But these extended forces are rarely used together, for the most part the orchestra is playing piano. The sounds Benjamin conjures from the orchestra are some of the most magical and gorgeous noises I have heard. One is always trying to anchor these sounds in terms of the familiar, but they are of themselves. Messiaen maybe, but without the vulgarity, Boulez possibly, but without the austerity. Perhaps it is Ravel which provides an approximate simile (and it is no more than that), music of refined beauty, restraint, technical accomplishment and exquisite taste, that gleams, sparkles and flares like jewels. A glass harmonica is used on two occasions. Oddly it is not a pure sound for all its crystalline quality, the harmonics generated have a strangely resinous tonality, like tearing silk. It provides the music of the spheres, but ones that are slipping past one another. The line 'her eyelashes scrape the pillow like an insect' is accompanied by plucked strings and bongos, in a way that is onomatopoeic but devoid of cliché. The score is awash with these felicities, it is a score that will be studied in conservatoires for years to come.

This work has enough substance for future interpreters to mine fresh meaning and insights for as long as operas are performed. It is an astonishing achievement, a genuine work of art that is accessible but never trite.

R3 is broadcasting it on 22 June, and I understand it will also be televised on BBC 4.

[amateur51]

George Benjamin's work received its world premier at the Aix en Provence festival last year, the same production has just finished its run at Covent Garden, but it will surely be returning before long. It is a work of music theatre of the highest quality and importance.

The plot is superficially simple. A twelfth century Protector commissions a scribe/illustrator - The Boy - to make an illuminated manuscript celebrating The Protector's life, power and possessions, which include his wife - Agnés. Agnés and The Boy become increasingly drawn to each other, the jealous and violent Protector murders The Boy and feeds his heart to Agnés as a prelude to killing her - she thwarts him through committing suicide. Typical overwrought operatic fare, you may think. The twist is that in addition to these characters are a host of Angels who occupy the present, but who travel back and forth in time to manipulate the principal characters into more extreme emotions and acts, moreover, The Boy is one of these Angels. The Angels are conducting a forensic experiment into the human condition via the medium of The Boy's enacted text. Written On Skin refers to both the medium by which the book is created, and the human emotions and acts depicted by the opera itself.

Martin Crimp, a previous collaborator with Benjamin, has written a 'text' that uses heightened language which is tersely dense and freighted with multiple interpretations, yet is lucid and, crucially, singable. He describes it as 'a hot story in a cold frame', a perfect précis. It is unlike any other operatic text I know, and it works like a precision machine in serving to wind the tension of the drama to unbearable heights, and delivering images of beauty and violence in equal measure.

What does it sound like? Benjamin wrote the music with the particular principals in mind, Christopher Purves, Bejun Mehta and Barbara Hannigan as The Protector, Boy and Agnés respectively. All give performances that are riveting in their theatrical content, and glorious for their vocal contributions. The vocal writing is lyrical and frequently ravishingly beautiful. The vocal lines in the 'love duet' between The Boy and Agnés, sinuously entwine and interpenetrate, some of the sexiest vocal writing since Berg. Indeed, Benjamin cites Wozzeck and Pelleas as being influences, which is evident, but in no way does it pastiche these.

The orchestra is large, with exotic percussion section. But these extended forces are rarely used together, for the most part the orchestra is playing piano. The sounds Benjamin conjures from the orchestra are some of the most magical and gorgeous noises I have heard. One is always trying to anchor these sounds in terms of the familiar, but they are of themselves. Messiaen maybe, but without the vulgarity, Boulez possibly, but without the austerity. Perhaps it is Ravel which provides an approximate simile (and it is no more than that), music of refined beauty, restraint, technical accomplishment and exquisite taste, that gleams, sparkles and flares like jewels. A glass harmonica is used on two occasions. Oddly it is not a pure sound for all its crystalline quality, the harmonics generated have a strangely resinous tonality, like tearing silk. It provides the music of the spheres, but ones that are slipping past one another. The line 'her eyelashes scrape the pillow like an insect' is accompanied by plucked strings and bongos, in a way that is onomatopoeic but devoid of cliché. The score is awash with these felicities, it is a score that will be studied in conservatoires for years to come.

This work has enough substance for future interpreters to mine fresh meaning and insights for as long as operas are performed. It is an astonishing achievement, a genuine work of art that is accessible but never trite.

R3 is broadcasting it on 22 June, and I understand it will also be televised on BBC 4.

Many thanks for this fascinating report, Belgrove. You have whetted my appetite for the broadcasts

The opera has already been recorded by Nimbus, with the same cast and conducted by Benjamin, and it comes with a complete libretto. This seems to be a matter for some rejoicing

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

R3 is broadcasting it on 22 June, and I understand it will also be televised on BBC 4.

Yes, cameras were there when I went just over a week ago. And amateur51 is right to point you in the direction of the Nimbus recording, which has the same cast bar Victoria Simmonds' role. Mine is in the post.

I found it a fascinating, compelling work. As a colleague posted, with reference to Martin Crimp's libretto which often has characters referring to themselves in the third person:

A masterpiece, I think, said the critic.

Benjamin's orchestral writing is very special, shades of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande and imaginatively scored - bass viol, glass harmonica, some amazing contrabassoon writing. The combination of Barbara Hannigan and counter-tenor Bejun Mehta was wonderful, their voices entwining around each other in duet. Christopher Purves offered an intense performance in a role where you don't sympathise with him to start with, but your perspectives shift during the course of the evening.

I understand it's due back at the ROH in 2015-16, but is travelling in the meantime - Munich in July. There's also a run due in Bonn in the autumn in a new production and a different cast.

[Belgrove]

Opera on 3 is broadcasting this next Saturday. Having heard the recording mentioned by Ams with the same cast, composer/conductor but with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, I think the playing of the ROH orchestra was finer, but it's always better at a live event.

It is a remarkable work, gorgeously orchestrated and written to be sung. A compelling and compact drama too.

[amateur51]

Opera on 3 is broadcasting this next Saturday. Having heard the recording mentioned by Ams with the same cast, composer/conductor but with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, I think the playing of the ROH orchestra was finer, but it's always better at a live event.

It is a remarkable work, gorgeously orchestrated and written to be sung. A compelling and compact drama too.

Many thanks for this alert, Belgrove

[Belgrove]

This is being televised on BBC4 on Friday 28 June at 7.30pm. A significant musical event IMHO.

Benjamin and Crimp have been commissioned to write a new work for the ROH

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-opera-commissions-new-work-from-george-benjamin-and-martin-crimp

[Serial_Apologist]

This is being televised on BBC4 on Friday 28 June at 7.30pm. A significant musical event IMHO.

Benjamin and Crimp have been commissioned to write a new work for the ROH



http://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal...d-martin-crimp

Did anyone watch this?

I'm rather outside my pay league to make any comment here, opera not being a field of interest, but I was quite impressed; the jump-forward references to the present day were downright funny, and someone had clearly done their homework on pornography, I imagine!