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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Written on Skin by George Benjamin

February 14, 2020
221 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France

Salome, move over. In Written On Skin, an adulteress feeds on her lover’s heart. Here’s grisly Magic Realism, with roots in that Renaissance book of a hundred stories, Boccaccio’s Decameron. The score is mesmerizing, shot through with diabolical subtleties. At the time of the premiere in 2012, international poohbahs debated whether this was the finest opera since Wozzeck (1925) or just of the last 20 years. This concert version of the opera is conducted by the composer himself, and the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan is back in the role of Agnès, which she created. —M.G.