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Home , Christopher Purves, Dai Fujikura, Etcetera Theatre, Greenwich Playhouse, Into the Little Hill, Martin Crimp

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Tuesday Evening, August 11, 2015 at 7:30 Thursday Evening, August 13, 2015 at 7:30 m Saturday Afternoon, August 15, 2015 at 3:00 a r g

o Written on Skin (U.S. stage premiere) r P

Opera in Three Parts

e Music by George Benjamin

h Text by Martin Crimp T

This performance is approximately one hour and 40 minutes long and will be performed without intermission.

Presented in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic as part of the Lincoln Center–New York Philharmonic Opera Initiative

(Program continued)

Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.

The Mostly Mozart Festival presentation of Written on Skin is made possible in part by major support from Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon.

These performances are made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Cen ter.

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Mostly Mozart Festival

The Mostly Mozart Festival is made possible by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Chris and Bruce Crawford, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Family Foundation, and Friends of Mostly Mozart. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts. Artist Catering provided by Zabar’s and zabars.com MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center “Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Diet Pepsi Time Out New York is a Media Partner of Summer at Lincoln Center

Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, U.S. and Canadian agent for Faber Music Ltd., London, publisher and copyright owner

UPCOMING MOSTLY MOZART FESTIVAL EVENTS:

Thursday Night, August 13, at 10:00 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse A Little Night Music International Contemporary Ensemble Pierre-Laurent Aimard , Pianos ALL –DAI FUJIKURA PROGRAM flicker; Calling; halcyon; Returning; Sakana; The Voice; Glacier; Breathless

Friday and Saturday Evenings, August 14–15, at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra Cristian M a˘celaru , Conductor M|M Lars Vogt , Piano MOZART: Symphony No. 39 BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 Pre-concert recitals by Jon Manasse, clarinet, Ilya Finkelshteyn, cello, and Jon Nakamatsu, piano, at 6:30

Friday Night, August 14, at 10:00 in the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse A Little Night Music Lars Vogt , Piano SCHUBERT: Sonata in C minor, D.958 BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

M|M Mostly Mozart debut

For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit MostlyMozart.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or request a Mostly Mozart brochure.

Visit MostlyMozart.org for full festival listings.

Join the conversation: #LCMozart

We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might distract the performers and your fellow audience members. In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking of pho - tographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 3

Mostly Mozart Festival

Written on Skin (U.S. stage premiere)

Opera in Three Parts Music by George Benjamin Text by Martin Crimp

Katie Mitchell , Director M|M Dan Ayling , Associate Director M|M Vicki Mortimer , Scenic and Costume Design M|M Jon Clark , Lighting Design M|M

Post-performance discussion with George Benjamin, Alan Gilbert, and Jane Moss on August 11

Post-performance discussion with George Benjamin and Jane Moss on August 13

Written on Skin is a production of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, in co-production with the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, and The Royal Opera, London. It was commissioned by the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam, Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, and The Royal Opera, London.

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Mostly Mozart Festival

Welcome to Mostly Mozart

I am pleased to welcome you to the 49th Mostly Mozart Festival, our annual celebration of the innovative and inspiring spirit of our namesake composer. This summer, in addition to a stellar roster of guest conductors and soloists, we are joined by composer-in-residence George Benjamin, a leading contem - porary voice whose celebrated opera Written on Skin receives its U.S. stage premiere. This landmark event is the first in a series of staged opera works to be presented in a new partnership with the New York Philharmonic.

Written on Skin continues our tradition of hearing Mozart afresh in the context of the great music of our time. Under the inspired baton of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra delights this year with the Classical repertoire that is its specialty, in addition to Beethoven’s joyous Seventh Symphony and Haydn’s triumphant Creation.

Guest appearances include maestro Cornelius Meister making his New York debut; Edward Gardner, who also leads the Academy of Ancient Music in a Mendelssohn program on period instruments; and Andrew Manze with violin - ist Joshua Bell in an evening of Bach, Mozart, and Schumann. Other preemi - nent soloists include Emanuel Ax, Matthias Goerne, and festival newcomers Sol Gabetta and Alina Ibragimova, who also perform intimate recitals in our expanded Little Night Music series. And don’t miss returning favorite Emerson String Quartet and artists-in-residence the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as invigorating pre-concert recitals and lectures, a panel dis - cussion, and a film on Haydn.

With so much to choose from, we invite you to make the most of this rich and splendid season. I look forward to seeing you often.

Jane Moss Ehrenkranz Artistic Director 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 6

Mostly Mozart Festival I Synopsis

By Martin Crimp s i PART I s

p Scene 1: Chorus of Angels

o “Erase the Saturday car-park from the market place, fade out the living, snap back the dead to life.” n

y A Chorus of Angels takes us back 800 years, to a time when every book is

S a precious object “written on skin.” They bring to life two of the story’s pro - tagonists: the Protector, a wealthy and intelligent landowner “addicted to purity and violence,” and his obedient wife, his “property,” Agnès. One of the angels then transforms into the third protagonist, “the Boy,” an illumi - nator of manuscripts.

Scene 2: The Protector, Agnès, and the Boy In front of his wife, the Protector asks the Boy to celebrate his life and good deeds in an illuminated book. It should show his enemies in Hell, and his own family in Paradise. As proof of his skill, the Boy shows the Protector a flattering miniature of a rich and merciful man. Agnès distrusts the Boy and is suspicious of the making of pictures, but the Protector overrules her and instructs her to welcome him into their house.

Scene 3: Chorus of Angels The Angels evoke the brutality of the biblical creation story, “invent man and drown him,” “bulldoze him screaming into a pit,” and its hostility to women, “invent her/strip her/blame her for everything.”

Scene 4: Agnès and the Boy Without telling her husband, Agnès goes to the Boy’s workshop to find out “how a book is made.” The Boy shows her a miniature of Eve, but she laughs at it. She challenges the Boy to make a picture of a “real” woman, like herself, a woman with precise and recognizable features, a woman that he, the Boy, could sexually desire.

Scene 5: The Protector and the visitors, John and Marie As winter comes, the Protector broods about a change in his wife’s behav - ior. She hardly talks or eats, has started to turn her back to him in bed, and pretends to be asleep, but he knows she’s awake and can hear her eye - lashes “scrape the pillow/like an insect.” When Agnès’s sister Marie arrives with her husband, John, she questions the enterprise of the book, and in par - ticular the wisdom of inviting a strange Boy to eat at the family table with Agnès. The Protector emphatically defends both Boy and book, and threat - ens to exclude John and Marie from his property.

Scene 6: Agnès and the Boy The same night, when Agnès is alone, the Boy slips into her room to show her the picture she asked for. At first she claims not to know what he means, 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 7

Mostly Mozart Festival I Synopsis

but soon recognizes that the painted image of a sleepless woman in bed is a portrait of herself, her naked limbs tangled with the covers. As they examine the picture together, the sexual tension grows until Agnès offers herself to the Boy.

PART II

Scene 7: The Protector’s bad dream The Protector dreams not only that his people are rebelling against the expense of the book, but also, more disturbingly, that there are rumors of a secret page, “wet like a woman’s mouth,” where Agnès is shown “gripping the Boy in a secret bed.”

Scene 8: The Protector and Agnès The Protector wakes up from the dream and reaches out for his wife. She, however, is standing at the window watching black smoke in the distance, as the Protector’s men burn enemy villages.

She asks her husband to touch and kiss her, but he’s disgusted at being approached in this way by his wife and repels her, saying that only her child - ishness can excuse her behavior. She angrily refuses to accept the label “child,” and tells him that if he wants to know the truth about her, he should go to the Boy: “Ask him what I am.”

Scene 9: The Protector and the Boy The Protector finds the Boy in the wood “looking at his own reflection in the blade of a knife.” He demands to know the name of the woman who “screams and sweats with you/in a secret bed,” is it Agnès? The Boy, not wanting to betray Agnès, tells the Protector that he is sleeping with Agnès’s sister, Marie, and conjures up an absurd scene of Marie’s erotic fantasies. The Protector is happy to believe the Boy, and reports back to Agnès that the Boy is sleeping with “that whore your sister.”

Scene 10: Agnès and the Boy Believing that what her husband said is true, Agnès furiously accuses the Boy of betraying her. He explains he lied to protect her, but this only makes her more angry: it wasn’t to protect her, it was to protect himself. If he truly loves her then he should have the courage to tell the truth, and at the same time punish her husband for treating her like a child. She demands that the Boy, as proof of his fidelity, create a new, shocking image that will destroy her hus - band’s complacency once and for all. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 8

Mostly Mozart Festival I Synopsis

PART III

Scene 11: The Protector, Agnès, and the Boy The Boy shows the Protector and Agnès some pages from the completed book, a sequence of atrocities that make the Protector increasingly impatient to see Paradise. The Boy is surprised: he claims that these are indeed pictures of Paradise here on earth; doesn’t the Protector recognize his own family and property?

Agnès then asks to be shown Hell. The Boy gives her a page of writing. This frustrates Agnès because, as a woman, she hasn’t been taught to read. But the Boy goes, leaving Agnès and her husband alone with the “secret page.”

Scene 12: The Protector and Agnès The Protector reads aloud the page of writing. In it the Boy describes in sen - suous detail his relationship with Agnès. For the Protector, this is devastating, but for Agnès it is confirmation that the Boy has done exactly as she asked. Excited and fascinated by the writing, indifferent to his distress, she asks her husband to show her “the word for love.”

Scene 13: Chorus of Angels and the Protector The Angels evoke the cruelty of a god who creates man out of dust only to fill his mind with conflicting desires and “make him ashamed to be human.” Torn between mercy and violence, the Protector goes back to the wood, and, “cut - ting one long clean incision through the bone,” murders the Boy.

Scene 14: The Protector and Agnès The Protector attempts to reassert control over Agnès. She is told what to say, what she may or may not call herself, and, sitting at a long dining table, is forced to eat the meal set in front of her to prove her “obedience.” The Protector repeatedly asks her how the food tastes and is infuriated by her insis - tence that the meal tastes good. He then reveals that she has eaten the Boy’s heart. Far from breaking her will, this provokes a defiant outburst in which Agnès claims that no possible act of violence, “not if you strip me to the bone with acid,” will ever take the taste of the Boy’s heart out of her mouth.

Scene 15: The Boy/Angel 1 The Boy reappears as an Angel to present one final picture: in it, the Protector takes a knife to kill Agnès, but she prefers to take her own life by jumping from the balcony. The picture shows her as a falling figure forever suspended by the illuminator in the night sky, while three small angels painted in the margin turn to meet the viewer’s gaze. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 9

Mostly Mozart Festival I Conversation with the Director

Katie Mitchell speaks with Alain Perroux about the staging of Written on Skin . r

o ALAIN PERROUX: You have directed several plays by Martin Crimp, t notably Attempts on Her Life and The City . What is it that attracts you to c Crimp’s theatrical world? e r

i KATIE MITCHELL: I love the precision and the rigor of his language. In his work, the language is like a taut muscle, with nothing flabby or slack about

D it. That means the director has to set the bar very high, and really try their

utmost to ensure this language gets across to the audience. I love the chal - e lenge that represents. I also love the austerity of the ideas that his works

h feed on, which are about time, failed love, society, and how it takes the t wrong path.

h When it starts, you think the play is telling a simple love story between a t

i man and a woman, when in fact it’s dealing with much broader ideas, like the failure of communism, the collapse of capitalism, or the meaning of life.

w Martin’s plays put caustic language together with big ideas, with a very pre -

cise, highly developed sense of psychology—because Martin is a great n master of psychology. Each of his plays is a very finished piece of work. o

i AP: These are qualities that appear in the text for Written on Skin . Do you t find elements in it that are specific to the genre of opera? a

s KM: The biggest difference between one of Martin’s plays and this opera r text is that at a basic level it has fewer words. Martin here creates a very e economical language that allows George Benjamin to fill the spaces

v between the words with music and sound. This text is just the tiniest bit

n more poetic, it’s closer to a poem than a play, but it responds to the psy - chological demands that theater makes of a text. It manages to distill a nar - o rative and dramatic content into a form that can be set to music, without

C losing the psychological imperatives or clarity.

AP: How do you deal with the highly distinctive lines where the characters are narrating their own actions?

KM: This technique is a challenge for the director and the performer, who doesn’t know if he or she is the narrator or the person being narrated! Of course, you can choose to ignore it, but then the result would turn out vague. So we have to find a justification to explain why the characters are describing themselves in this way, and consequently why their past actions and words are in a present-day frame—another feature that is quite original and fairly complex to deal with.

We decided that there should simply be two very clearly represented peri - ods: that of the narrators, and that of the characters. I thought if the nar - rator-characters relate the things they’re doing, they must have done them before. So why not make them come back from the dead and ask them to 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 10

Mostly Mozart Festival I Conversation with the Director

repeat their past gestures? That sounds complicated to me when I describe it, but for the audience it will be very easy to grasp. You’ll see people brought back to life to act out the most difficult parts of their lives again, while they’re narrating them. We’re trying to create a world in which this narration never detracts from the power of the human situations that the opera is exploring.

AP: Vicki Mortimer’s sets and costumes also contribute a great deal to mak - ing these different dimensions clear. How do you go about making two dif - ferent periods co-exist in the same space?

KM: There are two periods being shown in this opera, and our aim was to make this clear on stage. At the beginning, we spent a lot of time doing research on the 13th century and on events that happened to real people. It’s our job to make sure that the performers’ gestures seem as true, precise, and believable as in real life, within a powerful world. We looked closely at the architecture and clothes of that period, and read its literature. And it dawned on us that we couldn’t stay completely in the 13th century. It clicked into place when we realized that we did not have to follow the rules of nat - uralism. The tone of the opera is like a form of surrealism, the surrealism of dreams, where everything looks real down to the last detail, but without the logic of life. In a dream like that, the people of the 13th century can come back to life and act in the world of today. That makes the mixture of today and long ago much easier.

AP: To what extent does George Benjamin’s music influence your production?

KM: In an opera production the music determines all your choices, much more than the text of a play. Usually I decide whether to accept or turn down a project I’m offered on the basis of the sound. Sometimes the plot is inter - esting, but really what persuades me to accept or decline an offer is the sound of the work. I decided to agree to direct Written on Skin after I heard [George Benjamin’s] Into the Little Hill . I thought, “That’s a fascinating musi - cal landscape, so beautiful…I have to do it!”

—Extract of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2012 program book, courtesy of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Translation from the French by Kenneth Chalmers. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 11

Mostly Mozart Festival I Note on the Music

By Paul Schiavo c i Written on Skin (2009 –12) s GEORGE BENJAMIN u Born January 31, 1960, in London

M What is the relationship between spiritual experience and physical pas -

sion? How does the past inform the present, and vice versa? Can art e speak truth to power, and at what cost? Can love and self-sacrifice over -

h come violence and cruelty? t

These are some of the questions posed in Written on Skin , the provoca - n tive opera by composer George Benjamin and author Martin Crimp. First

o performed in 2012 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Written on Skin receives its U.S. stage premiere at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival,

e where Benjamin is composer-in-residence. Written on Skin is his second t opera, and his second collaboration with Crimp. Their earlier chamber

o opera, Into the Little Hill (2006), will also be performed in concert at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday. Although executed on a larger scale, Written on N Skin extends themes, dramaturgical devices, and musical procedures broached in the earlier work. Among these are the investing of a cen - turies-old tale with modern significance; examining the position of art and artists in a corrupt, materialist society; merging narration and dia - logue into a novel hybrid; and using unconventional instruments to achieve new sonorities.

It may seem surprising that Benjamin waited until he was 50 before com - posing his first full-scale opera. Born in London in 1960, he began writing music early and was only 16 when he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Olivier Messiaen and attended the French composer’s famed analysis class. Unbeknownst to his students, Messiaen was at that time working on his opera Saint François d’Assise , and he devoted his class—the last one he taught before retiring from the Conservatory faculty—largely to examining major operas. Yet that study, and further work at Cambridge University, did not lure Benjamin quickly into opera. In fact, he didn’t leap quickly into any compositional genre. Instead, Benjamin proceeded deliberately during his 20s and 30s, grap - pling with the problems of late-modern music, in which old rules and pro - cedures no longer held sway and composers faced a dizzying array of pos - sibilities. Working slowly, he established a coherent and expressive style and made his reputation chiefly by way of orchestral music.

Significantly, though, Benjamin’s orchestral compositions tended to draw inspiration from literary or pictorial ideas. Ringed by the Flat Horizon , his first major work (completed when he was 20), evokes the picture of a thunderstorm in the New Mexico desert and verses by T.S. Eliot. At First Light was inspired by a painting of Turner’s, and Sudden Time takes its title and generative idea from the Wallace Stevens poem “Martial 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 12

Mostly Mozart Festival I Note on the Music

Cadenza.” Other early works use poetic texts more explicitly. A Mind of Winter is a setting for soprano and small orchestra of another Stevens poem, “The Snow Man,” Benjamin’s music evoking the bare, frozen landscape sug - gested by the verses. Upon Silence , for mezzo-soprano and strings, employs as its text William Butler Yeats’s “Long-legged Fly.”

All this suggests a composer for whom opera would seem a fertile medium. Benjamin long considered writing such a work, and for years he jotted down in a notebook possible subjects for operatic treatment. His list reportedly extended to some 50 ideas before a chance meeting with Crimp, in 2005, led to the creation of Into the Little Hill . Benjamin completed the score for that piece in six months—very quickly, by his standards—and Written on Skin confirmed that opera was indeed a congenial format for him. The composer credits both the narrative structure of opera and his collaborator for the rela - tive ease with which he was able to compose these works. “It’s having a story to tell, and it’s having such an interesting and provocative and structural and imaginative person to work with,” he told an interviewer. “He [Crimp] multi - plies my speed of composition by eight times....”

Benjamin’s contribution to both operas has proved dynamic and imaginative, and his music for Written on Skin illuminates the story in remarkable ways. Avoiding the conventions of Romantic opera—big arias, excessive emotional effusion, purely illustrative sonorities—it conveys the tension, violence, and tenderness of the various scenes while creating what is often an other- worldly atmosphere. The fairly large orchestra for which it is scored includes unusual instruments, among them bass viol, cowbells, mandolins, and glass harmonica. The vocal lines are seamlessly woven into a fabric of kaleido - scopically changing instrumental colors and textures. Integration of vocal and instrumental music, a goal of modern opera for well over a century, has rarely been so well-achieved.

Written on Skin is loosely based on an incident that reportedly befell the Catalan troubadour Guillem de Cabestaing (1162–1212). As related in a razo , an explanatory text giving background to a troubadour’s story-song, Guillem fell in love with his patron’s wife, with tragic consequences. In refashioning the story as an opera, Crimp has preserved its essence while making notable changes. For one thing, the identities of the main characters are altered. The vengeful husband is known only as “the Protector,” a title replete with irony. His wife is called Agnès—fittingly, since she is indeed a sacrificial lamb. And instead of a troubadour, her lover is a visual artist, a maker of illuminated man - uscripts, the ornately illustrated tomes that were so laboriously created during the Middle Ages. He, too, is not named but is called only “the Boy,” a moniker suggestive of youth and innocence. So, too, does his voice; Benjamin wrote the role for a countertenor.

The text includes a band of angels who function like the chorus in Greek drama. These celestial beings also provide one of the protagonists, the Boy, 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 13

Mostly Mozart Festival I Note on the Music

who appears as an angel transformed. Crucially, however, the Boy is not just an angel but an artist. The opera clearly equates the two and implies that the Boy’s angelic attributes are also those of artists generally. But uniquely to artists, the Boy is able to impart meaning to human experience. On one level, he can extol his patron’s riches and high social standing. More essentially, the Boy validates Agnès’s existence not only by showing her love but by trans - forming that experience into art.

In a crucial scene, Agnès, upon hearing the account of their passion the Boy has written, demands to be shown the word for love in his manuscript, as though the emotion she has felt will become real, or least attain heightened reality, by being transformed into a symbol. Here the full import of the opera’s title becomes clear. Written on Skin indicates not just script upon the artificial skin of parchment by which books were created in the Middle Ages, it also tells of the power of writing—of art—to move us viscerally and even awaken us physically.

Paul Schiavo serves as program annotator for the St. Louis and Seattle Symphonies, and writes frequently for concerts at Lincoln Center.

Mostly Mozart Festival I Conversation with the Composer

The following is excerpted from an interview with George Benjamin by r Alain Perroux. e

s ALAIN PERROUX: Would it be right to think of your first operatic work, Into

o the Little Hill , as a stage along the road to the “large form” that you’ve developed in Written on Skin? p

GEORGE BENJAMIN: Writing music for the theater has always been an m ambition of mine, and it is something that transferred into my instrumental

o pieces. But up until now I had held back from writing an opera for three rea -

C sons: I didn’t feel technically ready, I found it hard to arrive at a way of com -

posing that allowed me to be direct, authentic, and modern all at the same

e time, and most of all, I hadn’t yet found the right person to collaborate with. After 20 years of looking, I had almost given up hope, when, thanks to the h

t efforts of a mutual friend—the scholar and violist Laurence Dreyfus—I came

into contact with Martin Crimp. Another factor was the enthusiasm of

h Joséphine Markovits, musical director of the Festival d’Automne in Paris.

t She offered to present our first opera as part of a retrospective of my music i in Paris in 2006, and so we wrote Into the Little Hill . I had only six months

w to compose this first opera, so I had to be pragmatic. It was going to be the

longest piece I had written, by far, at 40 minutes—and at the time I couldn’t

n envisage writing a complete opera for a full orchestra. After that experience, which proved most happy, Martin and I wanted to work together again. o i

t AP: The question faced by every opera composer is the necessity of the

a music in relation to the text. How have you answered it? s

r GB: This is the question I asked myself in every bar. What is the dramatic pur -

e pose of the music if it is not to be reduced to creating a generalized emotion, like in film music? What is its purpose at every second of the drama and v within the structure of the opera? Because it doesn’t make sense if the over - n all form works well, but the intensity of the moment is weak, or vice versa.

o Besides, it’s not possible any more to compose operas as was done in the 19th century or in the early 20th. Now that we’re accustomed to cinematic C realism, it seems impossible to me to write a “realistic” opera like those from the turn of the 20th century. To me, a domestic drama with post-serial music sounds wrong; you’re always asking the question, “Why are they singing?”

AP: In what way did Martin Crimp’s theatrical world make it possible for you to resolve this issue?

GB: In both our operas, Martin and I chose ancient stories observed from a contemporary vantage point. And the means of employing this element of perspective are incredibly simple: the characters are their own narrators. I find this technique interesting for a number of reasons. The singers can demonstrate to the audience that the dramatic situation is artificial: what’s on stage does not pretend to be reality. The audience can then perhaps be more at ease, as there is no attempt to disguise the strangeness of the 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 15

Mostly Mozart Festival I Conversation with the Composer

medium, and I believe this in turn—almost paradoxically—opens the way for a greater degree of spontaneity and dramatic immediacy.

AP: Over all, your vocal writing is extremely varied.

GB: I above all wanted to avoid the “zigzagging” cliché of much contemporary vocal writing. So in the main I avoided constant changes of register, and cer - tain disjunct intervals which have become somewhat stale to my ears. I was particularly keen for the vocal line to reflect the characters’ intentions at every moment, through their tessitura, rhythmic pacing, and intervallic flavor, as I try to serve the drama and find a degree of truth. I’ve tried to avoid a generic response to the text at all times. Besides, the vocal parts of Written on Skin were not composed in the abstract, but specifically for the singers who first performed the roles. I met each singer a long time before starting to compose, and took page after page of notes on the specific qualities of their voices.

AP: Your orchestration is also very varied. You have a fairly classic basis of strings, woodwind, and brass, but with a lot of percussion and some rare instruments like the bass viol and the glass harmonica added. What is the rea - son for this unusual amalgam?

GB: It’s essential that most of the words are audible—and I didn’t want the singers to have to shout and fight the orchestra. So the orchestral norm is restraint and clarity. As a result, the rare moments when this norm is broken make an impact. I use the orchestra like a colored background, almost as an illuminator might; it envelops the singers in a constantly changing tissue of sound. Conventional instruments are sometimes used in ways that are any - thing but conventional. For example, in Scene 7, the scene of the Protector’s nightmare, I wanted the characters to sing in a rapid, hushed manner, and that means that the orchestra has to be very soft. But because this was a night - mare, I also felt the necessity to create a lumpy, heavy, thick, almost sicken - ing sound, akin to the feeling of being trapped in a bad dream. So at that point many instruments play, but all in the low register, and most with special mutes that dampen the sound.

AP: Verdi spoke of the tinta or distinctive color that he tried to find for each opera. What would you say was the “color” of Written on Skin ?

GB: Although we were telling this story from a contemporary point of view, the image of medieval illuminators and their technique was a key source of inspiration for both Martin and me. What does one see in an illumination? A formal frame, sometimes with a high degree of colorful ornamentation, and inside this frame a fairly abstract representation of a religious scene or a scene from nature. The score of Written on Skin is something similar: it is made up of a succession of frames. These are not presented as segregated blocks, for the music flows across them, but beneath the rhythmic and architectural sur - face you find a continuous sequence of frames. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 16

Mostly Mozart Festival I Conversation with the Composer

In Umberto Eco’s book On Beauty I discovered some images of the apoca - lypse from a remarkable 11th-century Spanish manuscript. The book dates from a period before that of Written on Skin . Its style is more primitive, but the colors of its illuminations are absolutely extraordinary: they all share a sim - ilar geometric background against which are placed fantastically inventive imagery. The relationship between the formal background and this fantastic imagery is all the more astounding in that they never merge, but interact. The result is coarser and less decorative than in the most famous illuminated books, such as Les Belles Heures du Duc de Berry . Less ornate, less complex, with primary colors, but an extraordinary range of imagery. This is the tinta that I was looking for in Written on Skin .

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists s t s i t r A

e L L A h X O F t

E C

I R U t A M e

e George Benjamin

M George Benjamin (composer) studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and piano with Yvonne Loriod. His first orchestral work, Ringed by the Flat Horizon, was performed at the BBC Proms when he was only 20. Antara was commissioned by IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) for the tenth anniversary of the Centre Pompidou in 1987. Mr. Benjamin conducted the first performances of Sudden Time at the Meltdown festival at Southbank Centre in 1993 and Three Inventions for chamber orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in 1995. The London Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez gave the world premiere of Palimpsests in 2002 to mark the opening of the LSO’s season-long retrospective of his work, “By George,” a project that also included the premiere by Pierre-Laurent Aimard of Shadowlines .

Mr. Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill , a chamber opera to a text by Martin Crimp, premiered in Paris in 2006 as part of a retrospective of his work at the Festival d’Automne. Written on Skin , their second collaboration, was com - missioned and premiered by the Aix-en-Provence Festival and has subse - quently been scheduled in over 20 cities worldwide. The opera has been recorded and broadcast, and is the recipient of prizes in the UK and abroad. Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Crimp are now working on their third operatic creation, a full-scale opera for the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, to be pre - miered in 2018. His latest work, Dream of the Song , for countertenor, female voices, and orchestra, will be premiered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in September 2015.

Mr. Benjamin is a CBE, Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He lives in London, and since 2001 he has been the Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King’s College, London. Mr. Benjamin is this summer’s Mostly Mozart Festival composer-in-residence. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 18

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Martin Crimp

Martin Crimp (text) was born in 1956 and began writing for theater in the 1980s. His plays include The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema (2013), In the Republic of Happiness (2012), Play House (2012), The City S E R

U (2008), Fewer Emergencies (2005), T C I P

B Cruel and Tender (2004, written for N / E

D director Luc Bondy), Face to the Wall N O L B

E (2002), The Country (2000), D

R E

I Attempts on Her Life (1997), The T U A

G Treatment (1993), Getting Attention (1992), No One Sees the Video (1991), Play with Repeats (1989), Dealing with Clair (1988), and Definitely the Bahamas (1987). His work is translated into many languages and produced all over the world.

Mr. Crimp’s translations include Gross und Klein (2012), Rhinoceros (2007), The False Servant (2004), The Triumph of Love (1999), The Maids (1999), The Chairs (1997), Roberto Zucco (1997), a new version of The Seagull (2006) for London’s National Theatre, and a contemporary adaptation of The Misanthrope (1996).

Mr. Crimp has written two opera texts for George Benjamin: Into the Little Hill and Written on Skin.

Alan Gilbert

Alan Gilbert (conductor), music direc - tor of the New York Philharmonic, began his tenure with the orchestra in 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post. He and the Philharmonic have introduced the positions of composer-in-residence, artist-in- residence, and artist-in-association; CONTACT! , the new-music series; the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an explo - E E L

I ration of today’s music; and the New R H

C York Philharmonic Global Academy, collaborations with partners world - wide offering training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside perfor - mance residencies. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 19

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

In the 2015–16 season Mr. Gilbert conducts Richard Strauss’s Ein Helden - leben to welcome concertmaster Frank Huang, Carnegie Hall’s opening-night gala, and five world premieres. He will co-curate the second NY PHIL BIEN - NIAL and perform on violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. He also leads the Philharmonic as part of the Shanghai Orchestra Academy Residency and Partnership and appears at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West. Philharmonic tenure highlights have included acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre , Janá cˇek’s The Cunning Little Vixen , Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson, and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard, as well as 24 world premieres, The Nielsen Project, Verdi’s Requiem , Bach’s B-minor Mass, the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey alongside the film, Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and nine tours around the world.

Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and prin - cipal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras nationally and internationally. In 2015–16 he makes debuts with Teatro alla Scala Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the London Symphony Orchestra, and he returns to the Cleveland Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The Juilliard School’s director of conducting and orchestral studies, his honors include election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014) and a Foreign Policy Association Medal (2015).

Christopher Purves

Baritone Christopher Purves (The Protector) has received much praise for his acclaimed interpretations of a diverse range of roles and repertoire. Highlights in 2014–15 include Philip Glass’s The Perfect American with Opera Queensland at the Brisbane Festival; Handel’s Messiah in Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne, and with D A the Wash ington Symphony Orches - O L G

S tra; the title role of Gianni Schicchi at I R H

C Opera North; St. John Passion at the Royal Concert gebouw; St. Matthew Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music; Pelléas et Mélisande at Welsh National Opera; and Saul at Glyndebourne.

In 2013–14 Mr. Purves’s engagements included Alberich in Das Rheingold at Houston Grand Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Scottish Opera, Written on Skin with Opéra Comique in Paris, 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 20

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Elgar’s The Kingdom at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Handel’s Messiah with Le Concert d’Astrée, and Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other recent operatic highlights include appear - ances at the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Salzburger Festspiele, Berlin and Bavarian State Operas, Netherlands Opera, and English National Opera.

Mr. Purves has a great affinity for contemporary repertoire and has originated roles in a number of world premieres, most notably the Protector in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, and Netherlands Opera, and the role of Walt Disney in The Perfect American at Madrid’s Teatro Real and English National Opera.

An established singer of Baroque music, Mr. Purves’s recent highlights include appearances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, and Le Concert d’Astrée. In 2012 his debut solo CD, Handel’s Finest Arias for Base Voice , with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen, was released on Hyperion Records to critical acclaim.

Barbara Hannigan

A frequent guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, soprano Barbara Hannigan (Agnès) has appeared with most of the other leading orchestras and conductors worldwide, including Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Kirill Petrenko, Alan Gilbert, Antonio Pappano, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

D Much sought after in contemporary N A R B

music, Ms. Hannigan has devoted an L E A

H extraordinary amount of her life to P A R singing the music of our time, and has given over 80 world premieres. She has worked extensively with composers including György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Gerald Barry, Salvatore Sciarrino, George Benjamin, and Hans Abrahamsen, to name a few.

As a singing actress, her operatic repertoire includes her highly praised debut as Berg’s Lulu at La Monnaie in Brussels, Marie in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Bavarian State Opera, and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni , also at La Monnaie. She will make role debuts as Mélisande (Aix-en-Provence Festival) and in La voix humaine (Paris National Opera) this season. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 21

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Ms. Hannigan made her own conducting debut in 2010 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris with Stravinsky’s Renard , and has since conducted the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, National Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Her con - ducting debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was awarded De Ovatie prize for the best classical concert of 2014.

For her performances in 2012 and 2013 Ms. Hannigan was named Singer of the Year by Opernwelt magazine and Musical Personality of the Year by the Syndicate of the French Press. Her 2013 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Dutilleux’s Correspondances with Salonen and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France won the Gramophone Award as well as France’s Victoires de la Musique.

Tim Mead

British countertenor Tim Mead (Angel 1/Boy ) most recently tri - umphed in the title role of the U.S. premiere of Handel’s Riccardo primo at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Highlights of the 2014–15 season included the title role in Philip Glass’s

A Akhnaten at Opera Vlaanderen, the G E V

O world premiere of Theo Loevendie’s L A E

N The Rise of Spinoza at the I M A

J Concertgebouw, Bach’s B-minor N E B Mass with the English Concert, Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society and Academy of Ancient Music, and a solo recital in Rome. This autumn Mr. Mead will make his role debut as Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bergen National Opera.

Operatic highlights include Goffredo and Eustazio in Rinaldo ; the title role in Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne; Endimione in La Calisto at the Bavarian State Opera; the Voice of Apollo in Death in Venice at English National Opera and the Netherlands Opera; Tolomeo in Julius Caesar and Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at English National Opera; the title role in Orlando at Scottish Opera and Chicago Opera Theater; and the world premiere of The Minotaur for the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden.

In concert Mr. Mead has sung with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Le Concert d’Astrée, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Les Arts Florissants, London Handel Festival, the Netherlands Bach Society, the English Concert, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Dresden 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 22

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Baroque Orchestra, among others. His extensive discography includes Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and B-minor Mass, Handel operas and oratorios, and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea .

Mr. Mead studied music as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, before continuing his vocal studies at the Royal College of Music.

Victoria Simmonds

In 1999 mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds (Angel 2/Marie) sang an acclaimed Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia for British Youth Opera and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito for Glyndebourne Tour. In 2000 Ms. Y

H Simmonds made her English P A R

G National Opera debut as Nancy T’ang O T

O in John Adams’s Nixon in China , and H P

T she went on to become a company I M S

T principal. She has sung at all of the A M major UK opera companies and cre - ated the title role in Jonathan Dove’s highly acclaimed The Adventures of Pinocchio for Opera North, a role that she reprised in 2010. Engagements abroad include appearances at the Aix-en- Provence Festival, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Opernhaus Halle, and the Netherlands Opera.

Recent and future operatic commitments include Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen for Garsington Opera, a new commission by Luke Bedford for the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, Mad Hatter and Alice’s Mother in Alice in Wonderland , Minsk Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Opera Holland Park, and Boy in Joanna Lee’s The Way Back Home for English National Opera. Ms. Simmonds sang a major role in the world premiere of Written on Skin , as well as at the Netherlands Opera, Opéra Comique, Royal Opera House– Covent Garden, La Scala, Wiener Festwochen, and the Bavarian State Opera. She reprises the role in a European tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Other engagements include a tour to Singapore with London Sinfonietta, Janá cˇek ’s Glagolitic Mass with the Cambridge University Musical Society, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for Garsington Opera, Verdi’s Requiem for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with City of London Choir, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Wells Cathedral and with Berliner Kantorei, Tippet’s A Child of Our Time with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and a recording of Offenbach’s Fantasio for Opera Rara. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 23

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Robert Murray

Tenor Robert Murray (Angel 3/John) studied at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio. He was a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House– Covent Garden. Operatic roles include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni for the Royal Opera House–Covent

G Garden, the title role in Albert R U B

L Herring for Glyndebourne Tour, Tom H A

I Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress for S S

U Garsington Opera, Ferrando in Così S fan tutte for Opera North, Benvolio in Roméo et Juliette at the Salzburg Festival, the Earl of Essex in Britten’s Gloriana at the Staatsoper Hamburg, and Bob Boles in Peter Grimes at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Concert performances include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with John Eliot Gardiner for the BBC Proms, the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion for the London Handel Festival, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the BBC Proms with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, and Mozart’s Requiem at London’s Mostly Mozart Festival at the Barbican Centre with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen. At the Aldeburgh Festival he has performed Britten’s War Requiem with Simone Young, and Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Adès. At the Edinburgh International Festival Mr. Murray has performed in Strauss’s Elektra with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Edward Gardner, Delius’s A Mass of Life with Andrew Davis, and Purcell’s King Arthur, or The British Worthy with Harry Christophers and the Sixteen.

Recent and future engagements include a tour of Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music, Haydn’s Creation with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, a return to Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, and a tour of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 24

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David Alexander Parker

Actor David Alexander Parker (Angel Archivist) trained at Arts Educational Schools London and also earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in the - ater, film, and television from the University of Leeds. He started act - ing at a young age while touring with the National Youth Music Theatre and began television work at age 16 on the BBC. In 2012 and 2013 Mr. Parker toured throughout Europe as part of the original acting ensemble in Written on Skin . He has also played Friar Lawrence in Shooting Stars Theatre Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet . Mr. Parker has appeared in the feature film Psychotic and the short film Shifter , shown at London’s FrightFest at the Empire Leicester Square. He also appears in the short films Versus , The Guardian of Thebes , Grace Under Pressure , and The Green Man . He recently appeared in a com - mercial for Bulmers Cider and will appear in both a documentary for Discovery ID and a Virgin Stills campaign later this year.

Laura Harling

Laura Harling (Angel Archivist) stud - ied fine art at Kingston University before training as an actor at Drama Studio London. Her theater credits include Lovesong of the Electric Bear (the Hope Theatre), Say It with Flowers (Hampstead Theatre), Written on Skin (Royal Opera House– Covent Garden and European tour), On Misanthrope (Etcetera Theatre), The Moonflower (Riverside Studios), Woman Bomb (Tristan Bates), Dido and Aeneas (the Actors’ Church), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rose Playhouse), A Woman Alone (Jack Studio Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Barbican/Royal Shakespeare Company), and Morning and Evening (Hampstead Theatre). She has appeared in several films as well, including Robert Altman’s Gosford Park , Suri Krishnamma’s New Year’s Day , and Jeff Woolnough’s Lost Souls . Ms. Harling’s television credits include Silent Witness , My Family , Casualty , David Copperfield , The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (BBC); Invasion Earth (BBC Scotland); and Young Jane in Jane Eyre (London Weekend Television). Ms. Harling also works as a theater producer. In 2010 she established First Draft Theatre, where she works with writers to develop new ideas. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 25

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Peter Hobday

Actor Peter Hobday (Angel Archivist) trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His theater credits include The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic), Bird (Forward Theatre Project, UK tour 2014–15), Say It with Flowers (Hampstead Theatre), On Misan thrope (Etcetera Theatre), Hugh (Arcola Theatre), Sold (Pleasance Courtyard), The Edge (New Diorama), and Divine Words (Central School of Speech and Drama). He has also made several opera appearances, including performances in The Way Back Home (Young Vic) and Written on Skin (Royal Opera House–Covent Garden and European tour). He has performed in the film Roses in Winter and also has appeared on television in The Mimic .

Sarah Northgraves

Sarah Northgraves’s (Angel Archivist) theater credits include appearances in Katie Mitchell’s productions of Alcina (Aix-en-Provence Festival), Say It with Flowers (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs), and Written on Skin (Aix-en-Provence Festival, Royal Opera House–Covent Garden, and European tour), as well as Attempts on Her Life and Ivanov (National Theatre). Ms. Northgraves has also appeared in Claim and Shame (Theatre 503), A Doll’s House (Greenwich Playhouse), ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (White Bear), Miss Julie (Brockley Jack), Dangerous Corner (UK tour), Murder by Misadventure (UK tour), Storeys (Man in the Moon), Bloody Poetry (Bristol Old Vic Studio and tour), A Clergyman’s Daughter (Southwark Playhouse), King James’s Ear (Old Red Lion), Doctor Faustus , Leonardo’s Last Supper , and The White Devil . She has appeared in a short film, Train Station .

Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell’s (director) recent theater productions include Happy Days (Schauspielhaus, Hamburg), a remounting of five of her previous productions 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 26

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at Brandstichter 2015 (Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam); 2071 (Royal Court Theatre, London); The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic, London); The Forbidden Zone (Salzburg Festival and Schaubühne, Berlin); A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Burgtheater, Vienna); Lungs and The Yellow Wallpaper (Schaubühne, Berlin); The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema (Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); Say It with Flowers and The Trial of Ubu (Hampstead Theatre); Night Train (Schau - spiel Köln, Avignon Festival, and Berlin’s Theatertreffen); Ten Billion (Royal Court and Avignon Festival); Rings of Saturn and Waves (Schauspiel Köln); and Hansel and Gretel and A Woman Killed with Kindness (National Theatre).

Ms. Mitchell has been an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and the Royal Court Theatre. Opera produc - tions include Alcina (Aix-en-Provence Festival); The Way Back Home (English National Opera/Young Vic); Trauernacht and The House Taken Over (Aix-en- Provence Festival); Le vin herbé (Berlin State Opera); Written on Skin (Aix-en- Provence Festival and Royal Opera House–Covent Garden); Al gran sole carico d’amore (Berlin State Opera and Salzburg Festival); Orest (De Nederlandse Opera); and Clemency (Royal Opera House–Covent Garden). For film and tele - vision, Ms. Mitchell has directed The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, Jen u°fa, Rough for Theatre II , and The Turn of the Screw. She was awarded an OBE in 2009 for services to drama.

Dan Ayling

Dan Ayling’s (associate director) directing credits include Vast White Stillness (Brighton Festival/Spitalfields Music); Struileag (Commonwealth Games, Glasgow); works for the T ÖNE Festival (Historic Dockyard, Chatham); Written on Skin (Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Opera, Wiener Festwochen, Opéra Comique); CITY (Norwich and Norfolk Festival); Remember Me (Sound and Spitalfields Festivals); Clemency (Edinburgh International and SO Festivals); FLOW , Fewer Emergencies , and City of Lost Angels (Print Room); Again the Room Was Plunged into Silence (Barbican Theatre); As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams and Cricket Remixed (Almeida Theatre); and Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat and Eschara (UK tour, Union Theatre). His associate/assistant director credits include Alcina (Aix-en- Provence Festival), The Man Jesus starring Simon Callow (UK tour), Così fan tutte (English National Opera), Written on Skin (Aix-en-Provence Festival, Royal Opera House–Covent Garden), Clemency (Royal Opera House 2), Heart of Darkness (ROH2, Opera East), and Four Quartets (Lincoln Center), among others. Mr. Ayling has also worked extensively with Almeida Opera, Cryptic, and National Youth Music Theatre.

Mr. Ayling trained at Birkbeck (University of London), where he received a master of fine art degree in theater directing, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he received a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in stage management and technical theater. 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 27

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Vicki Mortimer

Born in the UK, Vicki Mortimer (scenic and costume design) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. She has worked regularly with Katie Mitchell, inclu - ding for Kát’a Kabanová and Jephtha (Welsh National Opera), Al gran sole carico d’amore (Salzburg Festival and Berlin State Opera), Parthenogenesis (Royal Opera House –Covent Garden, Linbury Studio Theatre), St. Matthew Passion (Glyndebourne), Written on Skin (Royal Opera House –Covent Garden, Aix-en-Provence Festival), Neither (Berlin State Opera), Trauernacht (Aix-en- Provence Festival), and The Way Back Home (English National Opera and Paris National Opera), as well as many productions at London’s National Theatre such as The Cat in the Hat, Pains of Youth , Ivanov , Attempts on Her Life , Three Sisters , Waves , and The Seagull . Other work includes Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , and Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne); Wozzeck (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Hamlet , Much Ado About Nothin g, and The Silver Tassie (set designs); Othello, Burnt by the Sun , and Last of the Haussmans (National Theatre); The Country , The City , and My Zinc Bed (Royal Court Theatre); and designs for the Donmar Warehouse, Almeida Theatre, and Royal Shakespeare Company. Ms. Mortimer’s dance designs include Raven Girl (Royal Ballet), Genus (Paris Opera Ballet), and Yantra (Stuttgart Ballet).

Jon Clark

Jon Clark (lighting design) studied at Bretton Hall, Leeds University. His recent opera work includes Król Roger (Royal Opera House–Covent Garden); Written on Skin (Royal Opera House –Covent Garden ; Aix-en-Provence Festival; Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse ; Netherlands Opera); The Perfect American (Madrid’s Teatro Real, English National Opera); Wozzeck , Caligula , and The Return of Ulysses (ENO); Macbeth (Copenhagen); La bohème (Dutch National Opera and ENO); and Footfalls and Neither (Schiller Theatre, Berlin). Mr. Clark’s recent theater lighting designs include King Charles III , for which his lighting was nominated for an Olivier Award; American Psycho and King Lear (Almeida Theatre); Trelawny of the Wells (Donmar Warehouse); The Beaux Stratagem , Othello , The Effect , Hamlet , Collaborators , Greenland , The Cat in the Hat , Pains of Youth , and Beauty and the Beast (National Theatre, London); Hamlet , The Tempest , King Lear , Twelfth Night , and The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Pride (Royal Court Theatre); A Season in the Congo and A Streetcar Named Desire (Young Vic); and The Commitments and Made in Dagenham (West End). Mr. Clark has designed for dance companies internationally. Future projects include Lucia di Lammermoor and L’étoile (Royal Opera House–Covent Garden), Much Ado about Nothing (National Theatre), and Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax (Old Vic).

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, renowned for its passion and creativity, was 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 28

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

founded in 1997 with the shared vision of being a free and international ensemble. The orchestra is a nomadic collective of exceptional musicians, with 45 members of the core ensemble spanning 20 different countries and uniting for specific tours in Europe and around the world. The orchestra is on the move nearly 180 days per year, and has so far performed in 35 countries across five continents. It is governed collectively by its management team and orchestra board, and decisions are made democratically with the participation of all musicians.

At the heart of the orchestra’s music making is a shared passion for chamber music. Its core repertoire lies in the Viennese Classical and early Romantic periods; the group also performs contemporary works and world premieres. The orchestra received its most significant artistic impulses from its founding mentor, Claudio Abbado, and from Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding. Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, violinist Isabelle Faust, and the conductors Daniele Gatti and Teodor Currentzis are current artistic partners who inspire and shape the orchestra during long-term collaborations.

Highlights this summer include the conclusion of a four-year project, The Beethoven Journey, with Leif Ove Andsnes, in Norway and at the BBC Proms in London, a return to the Lucerne Festival with Gatti, and the launch of a Carl Nielsen portrait at the Musikfest Berlin.

The orchestra musicians all share a strong desire to continually deepen their engagement with audiences. This has inspired a growing number of offstage musical encounters and projects that bring music, learning, and creativity to communities around the globe.

Jane Moss

Jane Moss, Lincoln Center’s vice president of programming since 1992, was named Ehrenkranz Artistic Director of Lincoln Center in 2011, a position that includes her role as artistic director of the Mostly Mozart Festival. In that capac - ity, she has initiated and led the transformation and expansion of the festival into a multidisciplinary, multilayered, and far-reaching exploration of its name - sake genius and his influence on succeeding generations. Ms. Moss has also created several major new initiatives at Lincoln Center, including the interna - tional, multi-genre Lincoln Center Festival, the New Visions series, which links the worlds of the theater and classical music, and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series, which focuses on classic and contemporary expressions of American song. In the fall of 2010 Ms. Moss launched the multidisciplinary White Light Festival, focused on exploring the many dimensions of transcen - dence and our interior lives as expressed by a dynamic, international spectrum of distinctive music, dance, and theater artists. The programming she has intro - duced and directs represents a continuing contribution to the vitality of New York’s cultural landscape. Ms. Moss also oversees Great Performers, Lincoln Center’s major season-long classical music series; Midsummer Night Swing; 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 29

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

and the free Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer series. She has played an important role as an innovator in musical and music-based presentation and is a recipient of the French Order of the Legion of Honor.

Prior to joining Lincoln Center, Ms. Moss worked as an arts consultant, design - ing and developing projects and programming initiatives for a variety of foun - dations and arts organizations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trusts. As executive director of Meet The Composer, a national organization serving American composers, Ms. Moss created the country’s largest composer commissioning program, as well as a program sup - porting collaborations between composers and choreographers. In addition, she served as executive director of New York’s leading Off-Broadway theater company, Playwrights Horizons, and executive director of the Alliance of Resi - dent Theaters/New York.

Mostly Mozart Festival

Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival—America’s first indoor summer music festival—was launched as an experiment in 1966. Called Midsummer Serenades: A Mozart Festival, its first two seasons were devoted exclusively to the music of Mozart. Now a New York institution, Mostly Mozart continues to broaden its focus to include works by Mozart’s predecessors, contempo - raries, and related successors. In addition to concerts by the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Mostly Mozart now includes concerts by the world’s outstanding period-instrument ensembles, chamber orchestras and ensem - bles, and acclaimed soloists, as well as opera productions, dance, film, late- night performances, and visual art installations. Contemporary music has become an essential part of the festival, embodied in annual artists-in- residence, including Osvaldo Golijov, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Pierre- Laurent Aimard, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Among the many artists and ensembles who have had long associations with the festival are Joshua Bell, Christian Tetzlaff, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough, Osmo Vänskä, the Emerson String Quartet, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlighten ment, and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educa - tional activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals, including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 30

Mostly Mozart Festival I Meet the Artists

Live From Lincoln Center , which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus reno - vation, completed in October 2012. S L A U S I V A N I L O M Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Violin I Cello Clarinet Trombone Henja Semmler Frank-Michael Vicent Alberola Andreas Klein (Germany), Guthmann (Germany), Ferrando (Spain) (Germany) Concertmaster Principal Benoît Savin (France) Iñaki Ducun (Spain) Annette zu Castell David Drost (Germany) Nina Janßen-Deinzer Mark Hampson (United (Germany) Stefan Faludi (Germany) (Germany), Kingdom) Kirsty Hilton (Australia) Christophe Morin Bass Clarinet Lisa Lee (United States) (France) Jaan Bossier (Belgium) Tuba Sophie Rowell Thomas Rößeler Jonathan Riches (Australia) (Germany) Bassoon (United Kingdom) Timothy Summers Philipp von Steinaecker Fredrik Ekdahl (United States) (Germany) (Sweden) Percussion Tristan Théry (France) Alessandro Battaglini Martin Piechotta Yi Yang (China) Bass (Italy), Contrabassoon (Germany) Axel Ruge (Germany) Igor Caiazza (Italy) Violin II Sung-Hyuck Hong Horn Christian Miglioranza Johannes Lörstad (South Korea) Stefán Jón Bernhardsson (Italy) (Sweden), Principal Apostol Kosev (Iceland) Rizumu Sugishita Michael Brooks Reid (Bulgaria) Luise Bruch (Germany) (Japan) (Australia) David Murray (United Peter Erdei (Hungary) Christian Heubes States) Tobias Heimann Harp (Germany) (Germany) Gael Gandino (France) Andrea Kim (Germany) Flute Jana Ludvickova (Czech Chiara Tonelli (Italy) Trumpet Glass Harmonica Republic) Bastien Pelat (France), Christopher Dicken Philipp A. Marguerre Sonja Starke (Germany) Piccolo (United Kingdom), (Germany) Júlia Gállego (Spain), Piccolo Trumpet Viola Piccolo/Alto Flute Brandon Ridenour Bass Viola da Gamba Béatrice Muthelet (United States), Loren Ludwig (United (France), Principal Oboe Piccolo Trumpet States) Yannick Dondelinger Mizuho Yoshii-Smith Valentín Garvie (United Kingdom) (Japan) (Argentina) Aurélie Entringer Akiko Butsuda (Japan) Sarah Slater (Australia) (France) Hanne Skjelbred (Norway) Delphine Tissot (France) Eve Wickert (United States) 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 31

Mostly Mozart Festival

Lincoln Center Programming Department Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming Jill Sternheimer, Acting Director, Public Programming Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming Julia Lin, Associate Producer Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor Claire Raphaelson, House Seat Coordinator Stepan Atamian, Theatrical Productions Intern ; Annie Guo, Production Intern ; Grace Hertz, House Program Intern

Program Annotators: Don Anderson, Peter A. Hoyt, Kathryn L. Libin, Paul Schiavo, David Wright

For Written on Skin Robert Mahon, Associate Director, Production Blair Hartman, Assistant Production Coordinator Andrew Hill, Production Electrician Celeste Montemarano, Supertitles

For Aix-en-Provence Festival Gerry Cornelius, Musical Assistant Alphonse Cemin, Pianist/Repetitor Matt Hellyer, Scenic Assistant Matthew Watkins, Stage Manager Ester Pieri, Deputy Stage Manager Jerome Lasnon, Chief Carpenter Raphael Caron, Deputy Chief Carpenter Jeremie Allemand, Electrician Annabel Cartallas, Wardrobe Marion Rinaudo, Props Stéphan Hugonnier, Company Manager

David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center operated by City Center of Music and Drama, Inc.

Board of Governors Alair Townsend, Chairman Gillian Attfield, Secretary-Treasurer Randall Bourscheidt Randal R. Craft Jr. Marlene Hess Robert I. Lipp Ira Millstein 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 32

Mostly Mozart Festival

Ex-Officio Hon. Bill de Blasio, Mayor of the City of New York Hon. Gale A. Brewer, Manhattan Borough President Hon. Melissa Mark-Viverito, Speaker of the New York City Council Hon. Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs

Founders Fiorello H. LaGuardia Newbold Morris Morton Baum

Founding Directors Mrs. Lytle Hull (1893–1976) Mrs. Arthur M. Reis (1889–1978)

Governors Emeriti Martin E. Segal (1916–2012) Martin J. Oppenheimer Nancy Lassalle

Staff David P. Thiele, Managing Director

Theater Management Joseph Padua, Director of Operations Meghan VonVett, Technical Director Mari Eckroate, House Manager Lauren Rosen, Performance Manager Edward J. Gebel, Chief Engineer Todd Tango, Treasurer William Holze, Assistant Treasurer Frank Lavaia, Master Carpenter Thomas Maher, Master Electrician Ben Dancyger, Master of Properties Rafael Diaz, Maintenance Supervisor Darwin Gonzalez, Performance Porter Clement Mitcham, Security Supervisor Aracely Diaz, Mail Room Supervisor

Information Technology Stephan Czarnomski, Director Yolanda Colon, Assistant Manager John Abramowsky, Sr., Programmer Eric Farrar, Support Specialist Anthony Vignola, Network Engineer

Telephone Sales & Customer Service Nadia Stone, Director Rosemary Sciarrone, Assistant Manager Keyvan Pourazar, Assistant Manager Shirley Koehler, Assistant to the Director

The David H. Koch Theater is owned by the City of New York, which has given funds for its refurbishment and which provides an operating subsidy through the Department of Cultural Affairs.