08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 1 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. David H. Koch Theater 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 2 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 Mahler Chamber Orchestra M|M Alan Gilbert , Conductor M|M Christopher Purves , The Protector M|M Barbara Hannigan , Agnès M|M Tim Mead , Angel 1/Boy M|M Victoria Simmonds , Angel 2/Marie M|M Robert Murray , Angel 3/John M|M Angel Archivists : David Alexander Parker M|M , Laura Harling M|M , Peter Hobday M|M , Sarah Northgraves M|M 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. M|M Mostly Mozart debut 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 4 RECORD AD 08-11 Skin_GP2 copy 7/30/15 2:46 PM Page 5 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.