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Believing the
Protector's story, Agnès accuses the Boy of betraying her, but the Boy explains he lied to protect her. Agnès says he was only protecting himself. She tells the Boy that if he really loved her, he would tell the truth and punish the Protector for treating Agnès like a child. She demands
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The
Protector asks the Boy to create a book celebrating his life, showing his enemies in Hell and his family in Paradise. The Boy shows the Protector a sample of his work. Agnès distrusts the Boy and is skeptical of the creation of images picturing their lives, but her objections are overruled by the
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With the approach of winter, the
Protector ruminates on Agnès's changed demeanor. She hardly talks or eats, turns her back on him, and pretends to sleep at night. Marie and John (Agnès's sister and brother-in-law) arrive for a visit. Marie is skeptical of the idea of writing a book and questions why
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The Boy shows the
Protector and Agnès some pages from the manuscript, including images of atrocities. The Protector asks to see images of Paradise, but the Boy responds that these images are Paradise and questions whether the Protector sees his own family and property in them. Agnès then asks to be
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The
Protector attempts to reassert control over Agnès. Sitting at a long table, she is forced to eat a meal to prove her obedience. The Protector repeatedly asks her how the food tastes and is infuriated by her response that it tastes good. He then reveals that she has eaten the Boy's heart. Agnès
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The opera is divided into 15 scenes. The
Protector (a rich land-owner) pays the Boy (an artist) to create and illustrate a manuscript about his family. The Boy and the Protector's wife Agnès are attracted to each other. Incensed by the reawakened independence of his wife, the Protector murders the
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The
Protect wakes up from the dream and reaches for Agnès, who is standing by the window watching the Protector's men burn villages. She asks her husband to touch and kiss her but he is disgusted by her request and says that it results from her childishness. Angered at being called a child, Agnès
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The
Protector reads the "secret page." The Boy has written a detailed description of his relationship with Agnès. This makes the Protector furious, but satisfies Agnès because it shows the Boy did exactly what she wanted. Ignoring her husband's anger, she asks him to show her the word for love.
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In the woods, the
Protector confronts the Boy and asks who he is sleeping with and whether it's Agnès. Wanting to protect Agnès, the Boy lies and says he is sleeping with Marie. Satisfied, the Protector returns to the house and tells Agnès that the Boy is sleeping with "that whore your sister."
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That night, the Boy visits Agnès in her room alone and shows a picture of the kind she wished for. At first not recognizing it, she gradually realizes the painted image, of a woman on a bed, is of her. They look at the picture together and Agnès offers herself to the Boy.
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The Boy reappears as the Angel and shows one more picture: Agnès, suspended in midair. The
Protector had rushed at her with the intent of killing her, but before he could, she took her own life by jumping from the balcony. Three angels
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shown the images of Hell. The Boy presents her with a page of writing, frustrating Agnès because, as a woman, she has never been taught how to read. The Boy leaves, leaving the Protector and Agnès with this "secret page."
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the Boy is treated like a member of the family. This arouses the Protector's anger: he defends the Boy and his book, and threatens to forbid Marie and John from entering his property.
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The Angels describe the cruelty of a God who creates man with conflicting desires, making him "ashamed to be human." The Protector goes into the woods and murders the Boy.
527:, the opera was ranked the second-greatest classical composition of the 21st century, with Erica Jeal lauding the score as "tense, precise and often glowingly beautiful".
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The Protector dreams that his people are rebelling against the book, and that there are rumors of a secret page where Agnès is shown gripping the Boy in bed.
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Boy and forces Agnès unwittingly to eat his heart. Agnès commits suicide. 'Angels' comment throughout on the action from a modern-day perspective.
521:) in "Benjamin's most vivid music to date, in a score embracing everything from sensuousness to explosive ferocity". In a 2019 poll by
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The success of the opera in performance motivated the Royal Opera to commission a second full-length opera by Crimp and Benjamin,
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353:) "addicted to purity and violence" and Agnès, his wife, his "property." One of the angels transforms into the Boy, a
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Unknown to her husband, Agnès visits the Boy's workshop to see how a book is made. When the Boy shows a picture of
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proclaims that no act of violence will remove the taste of the Boy's heart from her mouth.
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as a commission from five opera centres, and received its British premiere at the
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in November that year; Benjamin conducted for all of these premiere seasons.
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An audio recording from the Aix performances was issued by Nimbus in 2013.
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John Allison. Review of operas performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
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that the Boy create an image that will destroy the husband's smugness.
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as "glistening, mysterious sounds" from the orchestra (which includes
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challenges her husband to go to the Boy and "ask him what I am."
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Benjamin's first full-length opera, it was premiered at the 2012
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Ballantine, Christopher. Written on Skin, Benjamin - CD review.
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Clements, Andrew; Maddocks, Fiona; Lewis, John; Molleson, Kate;
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Peter Hobday, Sarah Northgraves, Laura Harling, David Alexander
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Peter Hobday, Sarah Northgraves, Laura Harling, David Alexander
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The chorus takes us back to 800 years ago, when books were "
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in London in March 2013 and its Paris premiere at the
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632:; Jeal, Erica; Ashley, Tim (12 September 2019).
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374:The Angels recall the brutality of the
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594:, 8 July 2012, accessed 16 March 2013
509:One reviewer described the music for
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434:Scene 9: The Protector and the Boy
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46:Scene from a 2018 performance by
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222:Conductor: George Benjamin
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376:biblical story of Creation
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218:Cast, Royal Opera House
501:turn to the audience.
355:manuscript illuminator
160:Guillaume de Cabestanh
78:Guillaume de Cabestanh
499:painted in the margin
88:7 July 2012
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805:Into the Little Hill
153:Into The Little Hill
315:Angels, Archivists
281:Second Angel/Marie
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272:Bejun Mehta
213:7 July 2012
906:Categories
755:on YouTube
752:rehearsals
651:12 October
534:References
245:Protector
207:Voice type
157:troubadour
92:2012-07-07
76:legend of
55:Librettist
685:Alex Ross
646:0261-3077
505:Reception
351:landowner
857:Category
452:Part III
331:Synopsis
174:Provence
145:libretto
84:Premiere
73:Based on
65:Language
870:Portals
832:Related
743:YouTube
412:Part II
318:Actors
231:soprano
128:by the
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68:English
917:Operas
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816:(2012)
808:(2006)
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336:Part I
227:Agnès
896:Music
884:Opera
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301:tenor
203:Role
191:Roles
30:Opera
653:2019
642:ISSN
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