George Benjamin Written on Skin
starring: Barbara Hannigan
Christopher Purves | Bejun Mehta
Victoria Simmonds | Allan Clayton
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera Chorus
George Benjamin, conductor
Martin Crimp text
Katie Mitchell stage direction
Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, March 2013
Label: Opus Arte
DVD: OA1125D
Blu Ray: OABD7136D
Intl. release: 06 January 2014
Awards
Gramophone Awards 2014, winner Contemporary
South Bank Sky Arts Award 2014
RPS Music Awards 2014
Edison Klassiek 2014
Buy & Stream
REVIEWS
“The cast is excellent, especially Barbara Hannigan as the wife, combining vocal trapeze-work with a thoroughly modern dramatic intensity”
– Gramophone, August 2014
“Hannigan, who has natural catwalk glamour to match a voice of bewitching beauty, charts Agnès’s path from servitude to resistance to self-destruction with uncanny precision.”
– Evening Standard, 11 March 2013
“The first truly great opera of the 21st century”
– The Times, January 2014
“Hannigan’s silvery, versatile high soprano…”
(5 out of 5 stars)
– Sinfini Music, 20 February 2014
“This is an outstanding release in every way…Benjamin’s extraordinary music is breathtaking in its lightly worn compositional virtuosity…The cast is sensational…Hannigan deserves all the superlatives in the dictionary…make no mistake: this is a true masterpiece.”
(5 out of 5 stars)
– BBC Music Magazine, April 2014