Written on Skin

WRITTEN ON SKIN: LOVE, BLOOD, AND A HEART TORN APART

HISTORY

Written on Skin is an opera that was composed by George Benjamin. It took him 26 months to complete the project before it premiered at the Festival d'Aix en Provence in July 2012. The London premieres were staged at the Royal Opera House in March 2013.

Act 1

As Written on Skin begins, the Protector (a wealthy landowner), his wife Agnes, and an angel -the Boy -are together. The Protector wants the Boy to use his skills as an illuminator to create a book that illustrates his power. Agnes is distrustful of the Boy, but is overruled by her husband who demands that she welcomes the Boy into their home. Curious to know how the Boy makes books, Agnes goes to his workshop and when shown a small picture of Eve, insists on seeing a real woman's image. When winter sets in, Marie, Agnes's sister, comes to their house with her husband John. She questions the presence of the strange Boy who the Protector then defends. When Agnes is by herself in her room that night, the Boy comes with the picture she challenged him to make. As they look at it, sexual tension rises between them and they are unable to resist each other.

Act 2

The Protector gets a bad dream in which he sees a rebellion against the book, and a secret page where his wife lies in a secret bed with the Boy. He wakes up, and Agnes is at the window; she wants him to kiss and caress her, but he is put off by the move which he considers childish. Infuriated, his wife tells him to talk to the illuminator to find out what she really is. The Boy is in the forest where the Protector finds him staring at his image on a blade. The Protector asks to be told who the Boy sleeps with on a secret bed, and the Boy says it is Marie. The Protector is contented, but Agnes gets furious; she thinks the Boy has betrayed her. He says that he lied for her sake, but Agnes wants her husband to know the truth .She believes it will punish him and wipe out his self-righteousness.

Act 3

In the final act of Written on Skin, the book is complete, and the Boy, Agnes and the Protector are looking at pictures of the Protector's property. The Protector is yearning to see paradise, but Agnes wants to see hell, so the Boy gives her a written page. As the Boy leaves, the Protector is devastated as he reads the writing which gives a vivid description of the illuminators relationship with Agnes .His anger makes him kill the Boy. Agnes has to again, do as her husband wishes. He makes her eat a meal set before her, she says it is good, and then he says it is the Boy's heart -Agnes is outraged. The Boy comes back as an angel; he has one more picture. It shows the Protector ready to kill Agnes with a knife, but she chooses to jump from a balcony and kill herself instead. The image depicts her falling while suspended in the sky by the illuminator.

THE MAIN ROLES

Protector, Bass
Agnes, Soprano
Angel 1, Boy, Countertenor
Angel 2, Marie, Mezzo-soprano
Angel 3, John, Tenor