Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Henry Purcell Professor of Composition George Benjamin, will conduct five performances of his new and greatly acclaimed opera Written on Skin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 8, 11, 16, 18 and 22 March 2013.  

Based on a 12th-century Occitan legend, the opera in three parts tells the story of a rich lord who commissions an artist to immortalise his life in a book of illuminations and in doing so inadvertently provokes his wife into a rebellion against her subservient role in their marriage. Reviews have described the piece as 'superb' (Financial Times) and 'sensuously beautiful' (The Guardian). 

It was commissioned by the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and premiered at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in southern France in July 2012.