George Benjamin: Into the Little Hill (2008)

George Benjamin's 2006 chamber opera Into the Little Hill, with a libretto by Martin Crimp, is an updated version of the story of the Pied Piper, but it's considerably darker both in its details and its overall tone. The score is typical of Benjamin -- spare, austere, and meticulously calibrated -- but emotionally potent. Two singers, a soprano and contralto, share all the parts. Benjamin's vocal writing is spiky and pushes at the extremes of the singers' ranges, but his text setting is so expert and his instrumentation so ... Read More

George Benjamin's 2006 chamber opera Into the Little Hill, with a libretto by Martin Crimp, is an updated version of the story of the Pied Piper, but it's considerably darker both in its details and its overall tone. The score is typical of Benjamin -- spare, austere, and meticulously calibrated -- but emotionally potent. Two singers, a soprano and contralto, share all the parts. Benjamin's vocal writing is spiky and pushes at the extremes of the singers' ranges, but his text setting is so expert and his instrumentation so transparent that almost all of the words are comprehensible. It helps immensely that his singers, Anu Komsi and Hilary Summers, have voices with spot-on intonation, and the ability to project the text with remarkable clarity. It's a very creepy piece, even without the visual element, and the evocative playing of Ensemble Modern, conducted by Franck Ollu, beautifully conveys its uneasy, menacing tone. Oliver Knussen leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a virtuosic performance of Dance... Read Less

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2009, Nimbus UPC: 710357582820 CD See All from $9.98