Opera

GEORGE BENJAMIN / MARTIN CRIMP

Lessons in love and violence

30 Apr, 21 - 10 May, 21

Musical conductor: Josep Pons | Stage director: Katie Mitchell | Titular Orchestra of the Teatro Real

Premiere at the Teatro Real

10 DEC. 20

Start selling day

26 Dec 24

Premiere date

26 Dec 24

Last performance

Performances

The intense and longstanding relationship between Edward II and his favourite Piers Gaveston remains obscure and uncertain for historians, however there is no doubt that it provoked the monarch to neglect his state responsibilities. His excesses and a permanent confrontation with his court ended with the king being removed from the throne in violent circumstances. Christopher Marlowe gave credit to this dissolute portrait of Edward II in his drama of the same name. First staged in 1592, it was the point of departure for Lessons in Love and Violence, the opera premiered at the Royal Opera House of London. The libretto by Martin Crimp gives a prominent role to Isabel, his wife and queen, casting her as the instigator of the plot. After the international success of the opera Written on Skin (2012), heard at the Teatro Real four years ago, George Benjamin illuminates this sordid story with a concentrated and intense musical score at once innovative and rooted in a tradition resonating with Pelléas et Mélisande and Britten. The work was written as a co-commission and large co-production between the operas of London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Lyon and Chicago, as well as the Liceu of Barcelona and the Teatro Real.

Opera in two parts

Music by George Benjamin (1960)

Text by Martin Crimp, based on the work Edward II (1592) by Christopher Marlowe

Premiered at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden of London on the 10th of May, 2018

Premiere at the Teatro Real

Co-commission and new production of the Teatro Real, in co-production with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden of London, the Dutch National Opera of Amsterdam, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Opéra National de Lyon, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona

Titular Orchestra of the Teatro Real
(Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid)

Artistic team

Conductor | Josep Pons

Stage Director | Katie Mitchell

Set and Costume Designer | Vicki Mortimer

Light Designer | James Farncombe

Choreographer | Joseph Alford

Cast

The King | Stéphane Degout

Gaveston / Stranger | Gyula Orendt

Isabel | Georgia Jarman

Mortimer | Peter Hoare

Boy / Young King | Samuel Boden

Girl | Ocean Barrington-Cook

Witness 1 / Singer 1 / Woman 1 | Isabella Gaudí

Witness 2 / Singer 2 / Woman 2 | Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Witness 3 / Madman | Toni Marsol

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Language

English

Subtitles in

Spanish, English

Artistic information

Creative team

Musical conductor Josep Pons

Stage Director Katie Mitchell

Set and costume design Vicki Mortimer

Iluminación James Farncombe

Coreografía Joseph Alford

Cast

The King Stéphane Degout

Gaveston / Extranjero Gyula Orendt

Isabel Georgia Jarman

Mortimer Peter Hoare

Niño / Rey joven Samuel Boden

Chica Ocean Barrington-Cook

Primera testigo / Primera cantante / Primera mujer Isabella Gaudí

Segunda testigo / Segunda cantante / Segunda mujer Marta Fontanals-Simmons

Tercer testigo / Loco Toni Marsol

Releases

Patron friends

09 December

2020

Subscribers friend

11 December

2020

Tickets on sale

15 December

2020

Performances

Date/hour
Space
Cast
Subscription ticket

30 April 2021

19:30

Main Auditorium