Picture a Day like This is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin , Lessons in Love and Violence , and Into the Little Hill . The 60-minute opera is cast in seven scenes and scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, with the composer conducting. Picture a Day like This tells the story of a Woman (mezzo-soprano) who has lost her child; if she can meet one truly happy person before nightfall, they will return to life. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and their assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and the mysterious Zabelle. Benjamin's music meets Crimp's text to create a bittersweet fable on grief and renewal.
Picture a Day like This is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin , Lessons in Love and Violence , and Into the Little Hill . The 60-minute opera is cast in seven scenes and scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, with the composer conducting. Picture a Day like This tells the story of a Woman (mezzo-soprano) who has lost her child; if she can meet one truly happy person before nightfall, they will return to life. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and their assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and the mysterious Zabelle. Benjamin's music meets Crimp's text to create a bittersweet fable on grief and renewal.