Intermezzo

Written on Skin again

The second-ever production of George Benjamin's Written on Skin debuted in Bonn yesterday as part of the annual Beethovenfest. Directed by Alexandra Szemerédy and Magdolna Parditka, it taps a more familiar vein of operatic imagery than Katie Mitchell's Katie-Mitchellesque take, which has travelled around Europe. None of the original cast took part. Hendrik Vestmann conducted, while George Benjamin sat in the audience.

Written on BBC4

Tune into BBC4 at 7.30 tomorrow night for the first TV broadcast of the ROH's Written on Skin. 

New George Benjamin opera for Covent Garden

The Royal Opera House confirm they have commissioned the new opera that George Benjamin and Martin Crimp mentioned back in February.

Written on Skin was not just Benjamin's best work to date but arguably Crimp's too. Can they match it?

The new baby hasn't yet been named, but its due date is confirmed as 2018.

Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House

Written on Skin - Royal Opera House, 8 March 2013 (UK premiere)

Very rarely do an opera's words, music and staging complement each other so perfectly they seem to have sprung from the same hand. Written on Skin is a multi-layered masterpiece that, like Parsifal or Così, resists a single authoritative interpretation.

George Benjamin - baby news

Some important news slipped out last night.  During a discussion about Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House, George Benjamin and Martin Crimp revealed they are collaborating on another opera.

All they were prepared to disclose at this stage was the timing - the interval between the new one and Written on Skin is the same as the gap between Written on Skin and their first collaboration, Into the Little Hill - which puts it at 2018 by my reckoning.

After all their trumpeting about support for new opera, let's hope the ROH have put their money where their mouth is this time and commissioned it. It's frustrating for us and ought to be embarrassing for the ROH that the brilliant - and British - Written on Skin and Into the Little Hill spent months travelling around Europe before making it on to native turf.

The ROH hope to make a podcast of the interview available in the next few days - well worth a listen if you'd like to know why George started composing the opera from the middle, not the start, and more about the compositional process.

While we're waiting, here's a video made by Peter Hobday, an actor in Katie Mitchell's production of Written on Skin. The words are George's, the actions - not.

Written on Skin - first look

A first glimpse of George Benjamin's new opera Written on Skin, which premieres at the Aix-en-Provence Festival on 7 July before coming to Covent Garden in 2013.

As mentioned below, you can watch the whole thing from the comfort of the Institut français cinema on 14 July.