‘Lessons in Love and Violence - Mahler Chamber Orchestra’

Sir George Benjamin is undoubtedly one of the most original and successful opera composers of our time. He was the last pupil of Olivier Messiaen, one of the most important composers of the 20th century, and he attributed to Benjamin a "great talent comparable to the young Mozart." The composer himself will conduct a concert version of his latest opera Lessons in Love and Violence, which premiered with great success in London in 2018. The story goes back to the play Edward II, by Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe. At the centre of this dark drama is the power-hungry King Edward, who neglects his people in favour of a love of art and his homoerotic feelings for Gaveston. Students from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Academy together with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and a top international cast shine in this overwhelming drama about the lust for power and the heat of desire.