Sir George Benjamin's Lessons in Love and Violence
George Benjamin (music), Martin Crimp (text) — With Stéphane Degout (King), Barbara Hannigan (Isabel), Gyula Orendt (Gaveston/Stranger)...
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Cast
Martin Crimp — Libretto
Katie Mitchell — Stage director
Vicki Mortimer — Stage sets and costumes
James Farncombe — Lighting
Joseph Alford — Movement director
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 Robertsson — Witness 3/Madman
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Program notes
The Royal Opera House presents the world premiere of Sir George Benjamin and British playwright Martin Crimp's new opera, Lessons in Love and Violence, with the composer himself at the podium! The production brings together soprano Barbara Hannigan, stage director Katie Mitchell, and designer Vicki Mortimer, reprising the creative team of their wildly successful 2012 Written on Skin that was hailed as "truly a 21st-century masterpiece" (The Times).
Commissioned by six institutions from five different countries, Lessons in Love and Violence draws on Elizabethan theater's quick scene changes and complex characters to ask very contemporary questions about the interactions of political power and familial love. The story explores the difficult choices of a king (played by French baritone Stéphane Degout) who must reconcile the political power he holds with his love for his family. His decisions throw his country into civil war, turning his wife and advisor against him and prompting his son to take action...
Photo: © Royal Opera House / Stephen Cummiskey
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