George Benjamin – Written on Skin
Barbara Hannigan; Bejun Mehta; Chrisopher Purves; Rebecca Jo Loeb;
Allan Clayton; Pierre-Laurent Aimard; Mahler Chamber Orchestra;
George Benjamin
Nimbus Records NI 5885/6
Written on Skin was a hit right from the first performances at the 2012 Aix-en-Provence festival, where this recording was made. The hard-hitting libretto by British playwright Martin Crimp involves murder, cannibalism and suicide, while the riveting score by fellow Brit George Benjamin includes some of the most sexually charged passages in opera since Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Yet the action unfolds subtly, in a series of intimate conversations, while the diaphanous music, with its silky colours and angular textures, avoids sensationalism altogether.
Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan dazzles as the passionately defiant Agnès. Her husband, the oily, malevolent Protector, is masterfully portrayed by baritone Christopher Purves. Counter-tenor Bejun Mehta is thrilling as the Boy, an itinerant artist.
Though the story is set in the Middle Ages, characters occasionally step into the present to “snap the dead back to life.” So the Boy imagines how a forest where he is taking refuge will be covered by “eight lanes of poured concrete” in a thousand years. Moments like these resonate powerfully. Less effective is when the characters slip into the third person to narrate their own story, or, especially, when the Boy turns up as one of the busybody 21st century angels. Their chilling presence may be provocative as a poetic device, but it does interfere with the drama.
A bonus, Benjamin’s imaginative Duet for piano and orchestra, featuring pianist wizard Pierre-Laurent Aimard, adds to the many reasons to enjoy this terrific recording.
