ARTIST’S VIEW: SIR GEORGE BENJAMIN
Lessons in Love Sir George Benjamin on writing and conducting his new opera, Lessons in Love and Violence, which premieres at the Royal Opera House in May
Writing a full-length opera must feel like a huge mountain to climb at the beginning! How and where did you start? The process is, indeed, enormous and – once underway – the seasons do drift by, year after year, seemingly without end. But then, suddenly the final double-bar is within reach and the creative journey is coming to its conclusion – a moment of intense elation as well as relief. For me the hardest task of all is starting a new piece. Within the initial pages essential characteristics of the tone, mood and pace of a work are fixed – as well as the associated techniques which underpin them – and they can take months to get right. With an operatic
20 The Green Room Spring 2018
work I don’t start at the beginning; instead I find a quiet place in the drama where the text invites me in, and where the initial challenges associated with beginning can be disguised. Do you think that your experiences as a conductor influence your composing, and vice versa? Yes, but perhaps not as much as one might think, as they remain very distinct activities – one social, physical and active, the other reclusive, solitary and lengthy. Of course, I have learned a great deal from conducting other composers’ scores, both classics of the repertoire and those of my contemporaries, colleagues and students. Amongst various elements, I have encountered
instruments with which I wasn’t directly familiar – basset horn, cimbalom, mandolin, bass flute, euphonium – which I have then felt inspired to include in subsequent pieces of my own. Of course, one also gathers continually new information about standard orchestral instruments too – their capacities seem inexhaustible. The analytical mind associated with composition perhaps fosters an approach to scores which is somewhat different from that of someone who has never written music, and the inner ear required for composing might also have its uses on the platform. But the best ways to collaborate with musicians and, above all, employ the arm and baton effectively – these are things
