Composer George Benjamin realises his opera ambition

Apr 15 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Composer George Benjamin _320

AS A 13-year-old schoolboy, George Benjamin wrote his first opera with a friend. It was based on the story of the Pied Piper but never performed.

“It went into a drawer and that’s where it’s staying,” he says.

Today, at 48, Benjamin is one of Britain’s most celebrated composers, and for years he had been planning to write an opera.

He finally succeeded with Into the Little Hill, premiered 18 months ago in Paris, and on Thursday and Friday it will finally get its British premiere – in Birkenhead. It is the story of the Pied Piper.

Benjamin and his librettist, the English dramatist Martin Crimp, call it a lyric tale. “I am quite relaxed about that aspect of it,” he says. “ It IS an opera but not a conventional opera. It tells a story through singing.”

It runs for just 40 minutes, and features only two singers with an ensemble of 15 players.

But why the Pied Piper again? “I had wanted to write an opera for 25 years, but thought it would never happen. But I did write down subjects over the years and when I got the commission I gave Martin the list and he picked the Pied Piper.

“Well, it is about music and the power of music, what music can do and how it can be misused. There are political overtones, but audiences can interpret it in their own way.”

Benjamin wrote and designed the piece for his two singers, British contralto Hilary Summers and Finnish soprano Anu Komsi. “I heard Hilary at the Proms and her voice was so gorgeous I knew I had to write for her, something that has happened only twice in my career. Anu I had worked with before when I was conducting, and I thought her voice quite extraordinary. She can sing incredibly high notes very softly.”

His score includes some very different instruments, including a banjo and the Hungarian cimbalom. “Also featuring quite prominently is a pair of basset horns, a cross between a clarinet and a bass clarinet, an extraordinary instrument which I have never written for before.”

Benjamin will be in Merseyside for the premiere.

* INTO the Little Hill is at the Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead, 7.30pm on Thursday and Friday. Tickets £22.50. 0151 647 0752.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk