George Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence

His orchestral imagination is prodigious, and both as a composer and conductor he conjures up memorable soundscapes full of jittery tension…the entire cast seems convinced it is creating something... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2019, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Dec 2018
Catalogue No: OA1221D
Label: Opus Arte
Series: Royal Opera House Collection

Presto Recording of the Week

28th December 2018
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May 2019
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Benjamin, G: Lessons in Love and Violence

Stéphane Degout (King), Barbara Hannigan (Isabel), Gyula Orendt (Gaveston/Stranger), Peter Hoare (Mortimer), Samuel Boden (Boy/Young King), Jennifer France (Witness 1/Singer 1/Woman 1), Krisztina Szabó (Witness 2/Singer 2/Woman 2), Andri Björn Róbertsson (Witness 3/Madman)
Royal Opera House Covent Garden
George Benjamin, Katie Mitchell

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Interview, Sir George Benjamin on Lessons in Love and Violence

13th February 2019

The composer talks to Katherine about the genesis of his third opera, which premiered at Covent Garden last May and was released on DVD and Blu-ray at the end of December.

Recording of the Week, George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence

28th December 2018

The British composer's third opera, based on the downfall of Edward II and starring French baritone Stéphane Degout as the conflicted monarch, has a compact, claustrophobic beauty.

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s second full-length opera – following the acclaimed Written on Skin – draws on the real-life relationship between Edward II and Piers Gaveston to explore how personal relationships can have fatal political consequences. The King lives in a close but uneasy relationship with his wife Isabel, their two children and his lover Gaveston.

When the King banishes his military advisor Mortimer, he sets off a chain of devastating events. Benjamin’s richly-orchestrated score perfectly captures the drama’s intense emotions, while director Katie Mitchell provides a visually stunning contemporary staging, highlighting the timelessness of the opera’s main themes. The composer himself conducts a superb international cast. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.

”George Benjamin and Martin Crimp have done it again. Six years after their previous operatic collaboration, the masterly Written on Skin, Mr. Benjamin and Mr. Crimp have again dared to challenge audiences by remaining true to their uncompromising visions. In Lessons in Love and Violence, (…) the music, written and compellingly conducted by Mr. Benjamin, is unapologetically modernist, while the libretto, by Mr. Crimp, is often cryptic. Without pandering, they’ve made another significant contribution to the art form.” The New York Times

‘‘His [George Benjamin's] music, like Crimp’s words, is at once brilliantly clear and full of half-suggested meanings. Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande lurks in the background, a benign influence casting rays of light into this world of moral darkness. Although Benjamin does not write conventional arias, it seems there is barely a line that this cast does not shape with beauty and expressiveness.’’ The Financial Times ****

Reviews

April 2019

His orchestral imagination is prodigious, and both as a composer and conductor he conjures up memorable soundscapes full of jittery tension…the entire cast seems convinced it is creating something deeply meaningful…Peter Hoare’s scheming Mortimer is the most compelling of all…But the work really needs to be set free from its creators.

March 2019

At just 90 minutes, this is an opera of impressive concentration with not a word or note wasted…In the telling of this oppressive story Benjamin and Crimp are as one. Like Crimp’s text, the music is a model of clarity on the surface, while suggesting an undercurrent of evil…Everyone in the cast fits perfectly…Hannigan is outstanding as the Queen.

April 2019

A magnificent production of a superb new opera - hold your nerve and buy it at once.

July 2019

Benjamin’s score is constantly arresting, its sense of dramatic pace, development and architecture fabulously judged, its moving and impactful unfolding delivered by way of an extraordinarily powerful sound fabric…Crucially, the DVD never lets one forget that one is watching a film, not sitting in the opera house. And its cinematic values are impressive; they also mesh brilliantly with the choreography of Katie Mitchell’s staging and with Vicki Mortimer’s designs.

28th December 2018

As in Written On Skin, much of the work’s disturbing beauty lies in Benjamin’s ability to switch from sensuality to brutality in a heart-beat, and the contrast between Crimp’s economical language and Benjamin’s rich, endlessly imaginative orchestration is also common to both works...The cast embrace their dramatically and musically challenging assignments with blazing commitment, sensitively directed by Katie Mitchell in a production which works every bit as well on screen as it did on stage.

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Interview, Sir George Benjamin on Lessons in Love and Violence

Recording of the Week, George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence

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