CLIENT: FABER MUSIC Opera Posters ‘…arguably the most spectacular orchestral writing heard in any opera of the past JULIAN ANDERSON ‘Written on Skin… half a century. For mastery of as immaculate as anything texture, color and invention, composed since the heyday Mr. Anderson sets standards… THEBANS of Ravel… the opera distinctively impressive.’ An Opera in 3 Acts smolders with darker, wilder THE NEW YORK TIMES Libretto by Frank McGuinness energies… feels like the work (MICHAEL WHITE), 5 MAY 2014 GEORGE after Sophocles of a genius unleashed.’ BENJAMIN GEORGE BENJAMIN JULIAN ANDERSON THE NEW YORKER (ALEX ROSS) Synopsis 25 MARCH 2013 A rich lord welcomes into his house the artist he has commissioned to complete a book of illuminations. This work, he hopes, will immortalise the ruthless practice of his political power and the calm contentment brought to him by domestic order, embodied in the humility and childish obedience of his wife Agnes. THEBANS This compelling re-telling of Sophocles’ timeless Theban tragedies focuses on the fate of Oedipus and his daughter Antigone. Anderson and Opera inWritten three parts (2012) on Skin However the creation of the book becomes a catalyst for his wife’s rebellion. After a first successful attempt Written on Skin An Opera in 3 Acts his librettist, Frank McGuinness, have distilled them into a taut drama where Opera in three parts (2012) at seduction, Agnes uses her new intimacy with the illuminator to change the very content of the book murder and incest, political ambition, love and loyalty, hatred and revenge Text by Martin Crimp and so forces her husband to see her as she really is. This opens the path for an extraordinary and final drive everyone on a collision course which can only lead to catastrophe. act of provocation. (Martin Crimp) Based on the legend of the troubadour, Libretto by Frank McGuinness after With a dramatic thrust that pins you to your seat, choral writing of power Text by Martin Crimp Guillem de Cabastany rarely heard in the opera house, orchestration that speaks of mastery at Sophocles’ Theban Plays every stroke, and character portrayals so vivid that you leave the opera house Based on the legend of the troubadour, haunted by their ghosts, this is an opera of great importance. The themes of Worldwide acclaim - Press Quotes the original – blood, murder, incest, political ambition, love and loyalty – are, if Guillem de Cabastany anything, intensified in this bold adaptation. ‘The drama is vivid and strong,’ DURATION c99 minutes writes Anderson, ‘I don’t want people to know what’s hit them until they’ve Act I 48 minutes DURATION: 95 minutes AIX-EN-PROVENCE VIENNA left the opera house.’ The relationship between onstage action and Act II 21 minutes Anderson’s music is a rich and complex one and his mastery of the ‘We leave the opera house so in love ‘Benjamin’s music is phenomenal: CAST: Act III 30 minutes orchestra is confirmed repeatedly – be it individual details like the that we cannot repress a vague feeling Delicate, shimmering, sensual, coarse black, oily contrabass clarinet which shadows the blind prophet The Protector Bass-baritone of having witnessed the birth of a and brutal, tonal and atonal, passionate Agnès Soprano ROLES CAST AT FIRST Tiresias or the many alluring, intricate string textures which masterpiece… Benjamin composes music and sober – but always, always brilliant. recur throughout. At the heart of the work is the chorus First Angel/Boy Countertenor PERFORMANCE Second Angel/Marie Mezzo-soprano at once haunting and sensual, perfectly Yes, you could also hear Berg, Debussy, – first the Citizens of Thebes and then, offstage in Third Angel/John Tenor built over time and greatly varied Messiaen or Boulez. But Benjamin is Antigone Soprano Julia Sporsén the third act, the voices of Gods and the sounds of throughout the scenes... A great moment Benjamin and as such is gigantic… Jocasta Mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley nature – all expressed in sensitive choral writing INSTRUMENTATION of contemporary opera. A great moment Opera – it lives! And today!’ Oedipus Heroic Baritone Roland Wood of the upmost power. (orchestra of 60): of opera itself.’ Creon Tenor Peter Hoare KURIER (PETER JAROLIN), 15 JUNE 2013 Polynices Baritone Jonathan McGovern 3(II=picc, III=picc&afl).2.2.bcl(=cl).cbcl.2(II=cbsn) - LE FIGARO (CHRISTIAN MERLIN), 10 JULY 2012 Tiresias Bass Matthew Best 4.4(I=ptpt).3.1 - perc(4): glsp/crot/steel drum/3 t.bells/5 RECORDINGS: ‘George Benjamin, one of the most King Theseus and Messenger Countertenor Christopher Ainslie tuned c.bells/vib/gong/2 small timp/6 mini-tablas/3 2 CD Set: Written on Skin [Aix en Provence] ‘Written on Skin is a true opera, with distinguished English composer of his Haemon and Stranger High Light Tenor Anthony Gregory bongos/2 SD/2 TD/tumba/BD/small claves/3 mokubios/4 Nimbus Records B009VECK8Q all its ingredients (love-triangle between generation, cultivates in his first full- Shepherd Baritone Paul Sheehan ACCLAIM FOR THEBANS tpl.bl/sleigh bells/mcas/pebbles/guiro/whip/sandpaper DVD/Blu-ray: Written on Skin [Royal Opera House] wife-husband-lover, love and murder, length opera a polystilistic open musical blocks/computer keyboard or typewriter/small tgl/ Citizens of Thebes Chorus Opus Arte OA1125D / OABD7136D play within a play, songs, sets, etc.). language, which is characterized by highly untunedc.bell/clash.cyms (2 pairs)/5 susp.cyms/tam-t - The music is incredibly beautiful: ribbed sophisticated instrumentation, whose ‘[Anderson and McGuinness] have ‘…an extraordinary finale in which harp - glass harmonica – bass viola da gamba - strings PERFORMANCES OF INSTRUMENTATION brilliantly compressed Sophocles’s Oedipus’s death occurs like a Wagnerian (8.6.6.6.4 players) 2 first violins doubling mandolins; all textures, subtle colours, flowing harmony beguiling palatable and sensual sound WRITTEN ON SKIN 1 1 trilogy into a compelling and dramatic transfiguration, haloed in the warm, rich double basses must have extensions to low B natural. of the simplest kind… Written on Skin is carries the red-hot vocals.’ 3(II=picc & fl tuned /4-tone flat, III=picc & afl).3(III=ca).3(II=cl tuned /4-tone flat, (as at December 2013) the pinnacle of contemporary output.’ III=bcl).bcl(=cl).cbcl.3(III=cbsn) - 4.3(I=optional flhn, III=optional tpt in D).3.1 - narrative that feels fresh and thrilling… glow of arguably the most spectacular Grand Theatre de Provence, Aix en Provence, KLEINE ZEITUNG (ERNST NAREDI-RAINER), perc(5) - harp - pno/synth/cel - strings MATERIAL AVAILABLE: This raw dramatic quality is partly due orchestral writing heard in any opera of July 2012 LE MONDE (RENAUD MACHART), 10 JULY 2012 15 JUNE 2013 to McGuinness’s libretto, which keeps its the past half a century. For mastery of Signed, cased full score on sale 0-571-53759-6 Het Muziek Theatre, Amsterdam, October 2012 language direct and the pace relentlessly texture, color and invention, Mr. Anderson Full score on sale 0-571-53758-8 Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, November 2012 ‘Written on Skin is almost certainly MUNICH FIRST PERFORMANCES Vocal score on sale 0-571-52672-1 Royal Opera House, London, March 2013 headed straight for any list of the best 3.5.2014 Coliseum, London, UK: English National Opera/cond. Edward Gardner/ high… But the real magic comes from sets standards… it is a triumph of sustained Text on sale 0-571-53760-X Theatre an de Wien, Vienna, June 2013, operas of the 21st century so far.’ ‘Benjamin’s music moves so dir. Pierre Audi/designs Tom Pye/Hetzer/lighting Jean Kalman Anderson’s score, in which the directness intensity that has dramatic impact on its Parts on hire Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich, July 2013, sophisticatedly between never-thick of the libretto is simultaneously enhanced own terms. And its individuality is striking… FRANCE TODAY (JUDY FAYARD), 8 JULY 2012 3.5.2015 Stadttheater, Bonn, Germany: Theater Der Stadt Bonn/cond. Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Lennox, MA, orchestral textures and an immediate ‘…we cannot repress a vague feeling of Johannes Pell/dir. Pierre Audi and fractured. Indeed, the clash between this is an opera like no other — which COMMISSIONERS: August 2013 (concert performance) expressiveness. The sound atmosphere the score’s elemental rhythmic profile and makes Mr. Anderson a maverick or a genius; Stadttheater Bonn, October 2013 (new production) AMSTERDAM Commissioned by English National Opera with support from The Boltini Commissioned by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, De shimmers between Eros and danger the shimmering quality of its expanded perhaps both. Either way, his Thebans is having witnessed the birth of a masterpiece… Festival d’Automne, Opéra, Comique, Paris, November 2013 Trust, PRS for Music Foundation and ENO’s Contemporary Opera Group Nederlandse Opera (Amsterdam), Théâtre du Capitole ‘The piece is of wondrous beauty, so that the one and a half hours are harmonic language seems at once to slow distinctively impressive.’ (Toulouse), Royal Opera House (London). a miracle of timbral inventiveness, Further performances include: dramatically perfect…’ and speed the action so that each event THE NEW YORK TIMES Benjamin composes music at once haunting harmonic and melodic beauty and ‘…a compelling and dramaticMATERIAL AVAILABLE State Theatre, Detmold, 2014 SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (MICHAEL STALLKNECHT), appears both inexorable and ambiguous. (MICHAEL WHITE), 5 MAY 2014 FIRST PERFORMANCE: Calouste Gulbenkian Concert Hall, Lisbon, 2014, expressiveness...’ 25 JULY 2013 Libretto on sale 0-571-53710-3 Anderson’s opera