Written on Skin

by George Benjamin, libretto by Martin Crimp

seen at Covent Garden on 30 January 2017

This revival of Benjamin's 2012 opera is conducted by the composer and features Christopher Purves as the Protector, Barbara Hannigan as Agnès (his wife), Iestyn Davies as the first Angel and the Boy, Victoria Simmonds as the second Angel and Marie (the sister of Agnès) and Mark Padmore as the third Angel and John (the husband of Marie). It is directed by Katie Mitchell and designed by Vicki Mortimer.

The story derives from the fate of the troubadour Guillem de Cabestaing, employed by Raimon de Castel Rossillon. Guillem began an affair with Raimon's wife, and the nobleman exacted his revenge by killing the troubadour and serving his heart to his wife. She in turn refused to eat or drink another thing so that the taste of her lover's heart would remain with her for ever. She escaped from Raimon's attack by leaping to her death from a balcony.

In the opera, only the woman has a name (Agnès), and the troubadour figure is replaced by that of the Boy who is an illuminator of manuscripts - the composer and librettist wisely wished to avoid the situation in which a major character was meant to be a singer. The Protector hires the Boy for a vanity project - the production of a book that will glorify his deeds and his family. Agnès is initially sceptical, but when the Boy rises to the challenge of depicting a real woman by depicting her, they become passionately involved. When the Boy, to allay the Protector's suspicions and thinking to protect Agnès, claims that her sister is the object of his affection, she berates him. He then produces a word picture of their love for the Protector to read, which precipitates the murder and gruesome meal.

The story is framed by the comments of three angels, who also take on parts within the narrative. As angels they are detached from and scornful of the human condition, and able to see far beyond the temporal limitations of the story (they refer to the fact that a car park has been built over the site of Agnès's death). Also, the characters often sing narrative interpolations of their own speech, such as 'said the Boy', or 'said the woman' or 'said the Protector', as the case may be. The effect is at once distancing and intimate; we are being presented with a story within a frame, just like a manuscript illumination. The music, with rich and varied instrumentation, almost always allows for a very clear enunciation of the text, so that the cumulative passions of the characters are very powerfully expressed even as the entire performance is seen as a sort of ritual.

Katie Mitchell's direction and Vicki Mortimer's design underscore this effect. While the story takes place in a warmly lit room, and in a space indicating a forest glade, beside and above these spaces are modern rooms lit with chilly neon, in which the Angels prepare themselves to be characters, and four non-singing 'angel-archivists' assist the preparations and shepherd the Protector and Agnès on and off the 'stage' where the story is enacted. The slow and measured pacing and purposeful yet often mysterious actions of the angel-archivists enhances the ritual nature of the experience. Mitchell has always been interested in the process of creating drama on stage, even to the extent of using live video projections of the performances as a vital part of the overall production. The effects here are not so intrusive - the space of the story is always the main focus until the extraordinary climax in which Agnès climbs a stairwell in slow motion, followed by the angels, while the Boy as first Angel describes his final illumination of the woman falling, caught silhouetted against the sky as three angels look impassively on - or out at the viewer.

It's an intense and somewhat mesmerising experience, beautifully sung by all of the cast. The staggering beauty of Iestyn Davies's counter-tenor voice, the rich nuances of Christopher Purves's baritone gradually changing to jealousy, rage and cruelty, and the piercingly clear soprano of Barbara Hannigan as the illiterate woman who unleashes her emotions once the Boy opens her eyes, are simply wonderful to hear.