A woman stands alone on the stage. Unsentimentally simple, she sings that her child died just as it began to speak the first sentences. It is the absolute horror of anyone who has children. Then she, which the score calls “Woman” and given by the grandiose Marianne Crebassa, begins a quest lasting just 70 minutes, with librettist Martin Crimp broaching relevant issues of the moment. And George Benjamin proves with short, austere miniatures that he is currently the best opera composer. This work of depth of feeling, humanistic artistry and expressive formal rigor is called “Picture a day like this”, it is a spiritual fairy story. The woman does not manage to find even one happy person to save her son, but she matures in the hopeless world.
Opera Festival in Aix-en-Provence: Man can not only torture – culture
