Opera in 3 parts
Libretto by Martin Crimp after an medieval Langue d'oc story (anon.)
First performed July 7 2012, Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence
Sung in English with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before curtain up, available here shortly after opening night and everywhere where podcasts can be found.
Three angels bring a medieval world and its inhabitants to life: the Protector, a landowner who rules over it and its people, and his obedient wife Agnès. One angel assumes the role of the Boy, who the Protector commissions to immortalise him in a book of illuminations. It’s Agnès his presence unsettles most: and after the angels have made her curious, she asks the Boy to make a picture of a »real woman« who, like her, longs for intimacy … The Protector notices that his wife is less friendly than usual, but can’t believe it could have anything to do with the Boy, he so admires. Too late: when the Boy shows Agnès the finished picture she recognises herself, and they begin an affair.
The Protector’s troubled by haunting dreams and incapable of responding to Agnès’ advances. He humiliates her again and again, saying that she’s just a child. Livid with rage, Agnès tells him to go and ask the Boy, who knows what she really is. The Protector immediately takes the Boy to task, which makes him tell a white lie: saying he’s involved with her sister Marie, not Agnès. When Agnès hears about this she feels betrayed by the Boy, demanding that he let the Protector know about their relationship in the cruellest way possible.
The Boy fulfils Agnès’ wish: by adding a page to the Protector’s book, on which he describes his nights of love with her in the minutest detail. The Protector decides to kill the Boy, then serves his heart to his unsuspecting wife in a silver dish. Agnès is transformed when she finds out what her curiosity made her eat: reaffirming her fascination with the Boy, she evades the Protector’s ferocity by jumping from the balcony. The three angels watch her fall with »cold fascination for human disaster«, before leaving the scene and moving on.
A wealthy man wants to immortalise his life and success in an illustrated book, which confronts him with an uncomfortable reality.
The Protector has everything he could wish for: money, estates and the – in his words - »still, obedient body« of his wife Agnès. But the book, throws his life out of kilter ...
George Benjamin’s Written on Skin is one of the 21st century’s most successful operas. The libretto, written by Martin Crimp, is based on a Middle Ages legend about the »eaten heart«, grown up around the Troubadour Guillem de Cabestanh, from Provence: after having an affair with the wife of one of his sponsors, the artist met a violent death. Crimp tells the drama in a crystal clear language which, together with Benjamin’s music, develops extraordinary depths. The opera’s like a play within a play: three angels, moving effortlessly between now and then, take on various roles and keep the momentum going. They end up witnessing a tragedy, in which man’s propensity for violence is as clear as his potential creativeness.
