Further Reading
22nd September 2023
Just back from the premiere in Aix in the midst of preparing scores for his summer tours, George kindly spoke with us about his latest opera Picture a Day Like This. Read the interview here.
Picture a day like this is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed
partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. The 60-minute opera is
cast in seven scenes and scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the
Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, with the composer conducting.
Picture a day like this tells the story of a Woman (mezzo-soprano) who has lost her child; if she can meet one truly
happy person before nightfall, they will return to life. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and
their assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and the mysterious Zabelle. Benjamin’s music meets Crimp’s text to create a
bittersweet fable on grief and renewal.
This product comprises the vocal score.
- ISBN: 9780571543052 (0571543057)
