---
product_id: 22206857
title: "Written on Skin"
brand: "christopher purvesvictoria simmondsmargaret williams"
price: "₪203"
currency: ILS
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 12
url: https://www.desertcart.co.il/products/22206857-written-on-skin
store_origin: IL
region: Israel
---

# Written on Skin

**Brand:** christopher purvesvictoria simmondsmargaret williams
**Price:** ₪203
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Written on Skin by christopher purvesvictoria simmondsmargaret williams
- **How much does it cost?** ₪203 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.il](https://www.desertcart.co.il/products/22206857-written-on-skin)

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## Description

Written on Skin

## Images

![Written on Skin - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/6124s9TWP8L.jpg)
![Written on Skin - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41XW0l9An6L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A NEW OF OPERA  FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
  

*by C***E on Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2014*

With libretto by playwright  Martin Crimp ( 1956- ), “Written on Skin” is a new  opera by George Benjamin (1960 - ), a British composer, writer,  conductor, pianist and music teacher,  who has recently become incredibly popular, in part due to the success of  the opera itself.  According to an article written by Eric Dahan for French daily newspaper Libération, June 19 2014 issue, “Since the wild success of “Written on Skin“,  George Benjamin has become the "Spielberg of Opera" …….“Benjamin is now the "most bankable of opera composers."Similar  comments on the opera - by Corinna  da Fonseca-Wollheim, for  the New York Times,  August 13 2013 issue - are:  “Within minutes of the premiere of George Benjamin’s “Written on Skin“, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival last summer, opera houses around the world jostled for production rights to this darkly erotic opera ………. In the past year, it has been staged in London, Amsterdam, Toulouse, Munich and Vienna, each time bringing audiences to their feet and leaving critics to pull out superlatives they hadn’t thought they’d ever use in the context of new opera“.More comparably positive  reviews on George Benjamin and his latest opera are available  on the internet.After reading the above and similar responses to the opera and its authors, can anyone  possibly give Written on Skin  anything less than five stars?So, having concluded that - based on the general opinion - this new composition is a  masterpiece as well as a milestone in the opera world,  let us learn  more  about it.Written on Skin  is an opera in three parts -  yes, it is parts not acts, as librettist Martin Crimps assures us.  It premiered  at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2012, and was then shown at  the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden  in London, during  March 2013.  George  Benjamin conducted  both  performances.  The opera had its US premiere in August at the 2013 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music,  where it was also conducted  by the composer.The opera in the DVD is the one presented at  the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden during March 2013.  It lasts approximately 90 minutes. It is sang in English, with English, French, German and Japanese subtitles.Like  many 20th- 21st century operas -  most prominent among them, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande  and Berg's  Wozzeck  -  Written on Skin is not the traditional collection of arias and recitatifs  of the  18th and  19th century operas.  It has been described  by music reviewer and commentator, Lloyd Schwartz  as  “a setting for a play divided into short scenes, with some of the best music coming between the scenes“.The staging  is unusual, and consists of four  tableaus  appearing  simultaneously on the  stage/TV screen  -  a long one above, two below, and a staircase on the right side.  Two of the tableaus show 21st  century environments, the third, a medieval background.  The setting  shifts from one  tableau to another,  the effect being accomplished by highlighting the tableau in question.  The  shifting results in  an interesting overlapping of time, from 13th century to  our own times.Costumes are both  medieval and 21st  century, probably  more often 21st century, than medieval.The libretto  is  based on the legend of the troubadour Guillaume de Cabestany, a legend that  was  described  in various literary works of the time, including  The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375).  The place is  Provence.  The time - as we just noted - shifts  from our  modern era  to  the 13th century, when books were rare because individually hand prepared, and precious because written and illuminated on animal skins  (hence the title of the opera).Three angels - some narrators and characters at the same time  -  open the show by singing  about how our modern civilization, with its parking lots and international airports, has been built on top of the "heaped-up dead” of the past.The actual story  is not for the faint of  heart.  If you found disturbing the last scene from Wozzeck - where the little boy  hears  about  the recently found body of a  woman on the outskirts of town, and  all alone heads for the site,  without realizing that such a woman is his own mother -  this opera is not for you.  Neither it is, if you found in bad taste the scene from Richard Strauss’ Salomé, where the heroine sings passionate  love words to the severed  bleeding head of St. John the Baptist.  You may not appreciate the same opera,  if you think that  Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District  has too much explicit sex.Written on Skin is more graphic and more disconcerting than any of the above, possibly even than all of the above put together.  Particularly so, because it is narrated by angels who - while comment throughout on the action from a modern-day perspective - do recognize the cruelty in human nature, yet realize that such cruelty cannot be controlled.This is what happens.  A wealthy man, known as “The Protector” -  and described by the angels as  “addicted to purity and violence”  - pays  a character known as “The Boy”  (in reality, one of the angels who assumes  human form for the story)  to create an illuminated  manuscript which will  flatter himself and his family and possibly make them immortal.  The Protector  treats his wife Agnès poorly, as he  considers her  just another  of his possessions.  Unhappy,  Agnès turns  her attention  to The Boy.  The two  have an  affair which is very short lived because  The Protector  - who apparently is  also in love and having a liaison with  The Boy  (based on the way he kisses him on stage, possibly in real life as well) -  soon  becomes aware of it.  He is wildly jealous: after all, not only has his own wife been unfaithful, so has his young male lover.  He takes revenge on the two of them by murdering  The Boy;  by then pulling  out his heart, cooking it and offering it to his unaware  wife who actually finds the dish  pleasant to the taste, “salt and sweet“, as she describes it………...  .Such  is the story so far, without any exaggerations, all details being accurately acted out on stage.Agnès is not horrified, after her husband reveals the nature of her dinner,  rather she  seems mildly content, as she believes that she has swallowed  the heart of the man  she loved and that consequently she has made him part of herself.Like in a Greek tragedy,  Agnès  dies in the end -  by suicide, after  jumping out of the balcony, and in order to avoid being killed by her husband….., “The Protector“.Her falling body appears suspended on-stage against  the night sky, while three painted angels look towards the spectators.The opera ends.If we believe  the unanimously positive reviews by the press both in Europe and the United States, we can only conclude that this is a work after which opera will never be the same.  But then again,  it may be just a question of taste.  Personally, rather than moving with the times, in this particular case, I would  prefer to remain behind and watch more traditional 18th and 19th century works, such as Don Giovanni or the Magic Flute;  L’Elisir d’Amore;  La Traviata or Aida;  La Boheme.  Perhaps, just perhaps,  even 20th century operas such as Peter Grimes and  Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    a worthwhile opera
  

*by E***N on Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2015*

a fascinating modern opera - not melodious but very listenable

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    A Mocern Opera worth considering
  

*by L***R on Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2016*

This Opera, composed by George Benjamin is one of a kind, incredibly well written and performed by singers who inhabit their rolls completely. Benjamin took years to write this opera and the time has served him well. So many contemporary operas seem to be so filled with sound that there is no time for silence. Benjamin has a healthy respect for beautiful melodic lines with plenty of air between voice and instruments yet he can hit hard with a crunch of brass and percussion and create a violence unique and frightening. The libretto jumps back and forth from Medieval times to the 21sst C, without seeming like a gimmick. I love everything about this piece.

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*Product available on Desertcart Israel*
*Store origin: IL*
*Last updated: 2026-03-17*