Interludes and Aria

Interludes and Aria. from 'Lessons in Love and Violence' (2024) is a 15-minute montage of excerpts for soprano and orchestra from Benjamin and Crimp's celebrated 2018 opera. Premiered by Sir Simon Rattle, Barbara Hannigan, and the London Symphony Orchestra, the seven movements have at their centre an aria sung by the queen Isabel, in which she dissolves a priceless treasure in vinegar for an audience of her starving subjects. Purely instrumental highlights include an explosive toccata, sombre nocturne, punctuated with tolling gongs, and chorale that erupts into an orchestral conflagration. A master of orchestral colour, Benjamin's inclusion of the cimbalom gives the score an unearthly character. Orchestral parts are available to hire from Faber Music. Benjamin's score combines the ravishing and the visceral in a way that only he can. Evening Standard (Barry Millington) 13 January 2025. Moody, dissonant, flamboyantly orchestrated and with a coiled tension that finally exploded like a volcano. The Times (Richard Morrison) 10 January 2025.