Written on Skin

Synopsis

A powerful Protector commissions a young artist to create an illuminated book to celebrate his power. The book sparks the rebellion of the Protector's submissive wife Agnes, setting the scene for an extraordinary act of revenge.

Our Review:

9 March 2013

At heart the new opera by George Benjamin to a text by Martin Crimp, directed by the playwright's regular collaborator Katie Mitchell, is a straightforward love triangle. The creative team’s twist is to present a web of heats and passions through a prism of ice-cool detachment that out-alienates even Bertolt Brecht. In its glacial beauty, Written on Skin grabs the senses but not the soul.

Crimp’s Occitan-inspired narrative tells of a ruthless Protector (Christopher Purves, magnificent) who commissions an artist (‘the Boy’) to set down his family history in the form of an illuminated book. When the latter attracts the attention of the Protector's young wife, jealousy and horror ensue.

It was a canny move to assign the seducer’s role to a counter-tenor. George Benjamin wrote the part of the Boy for Bejun Mehta and plays on the androgynous possibilities of his voice to create a figure whose plausible appeal affects both partner...

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Latest User Review

Cassx - 12 March 2013:

Brillinant new opera in a brilliant staging. Exceptional turns from the leads! Not often you see opera singers engage that physically and invest so much into a production. All hail to them! ...

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