Written on Skin

“Push our love into that man’s eye like a hot needle. Blind him with it. Make him cry blood.”
– Agnès in Written on Skin

Inspired by a brutal medieval tale from southern France, composer George Benjamin and playwright Martin Crimp have created a harrowing opera about a man in power – and what happens when that power is challenged.

Benjamin and Crimp wrote Written on Skin for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2012. Since then, it has been performed across the globe and acclaimed as a modern masterpiece.

Benjamin’s music inhabits a unique and captivating sound world unlike any other – with sonorities that are at once unsettling and of unearthly beauty. In Written on Skin he deploys unusual instruments such as the glass harmonica, viola da gamba, and a wide array of bells and percussion to conjure the atmosphere of impending catastrophe. The encounter between Benjamin’s music and Martin Crimp’s enigmatic, experimental, and lyrical style gives Written on Skin its extraordinary dramatic power.

The greatest operatic masterpiece of the 21st century
Conductor Evan Rogister did not hesitate for a second when asked to lead Written on Skin at the Royal Danish Opera. “I was completely blown away when I experienced the opera at Lincoln Center in 2015, and I still have a strong physical memory of that performance,” he recalls. “Written on Skin is arguably the most successful opera of our time. I believe it to be the greatest operatic masterpiece of the 21st century – and one of the greatest operas of all time. It is an absolutely extraordinary work.”

The story of Written on Skin
A young artist is commissioned to immortalise a family’s life and deeds in an illuminated book. The husband rules his household and those around him with callous authority, but the artist’s presence alters the dynamic, and the wife, Agnès, embarks on a passionate affair with him. Catastrophe looms when Agnès demands that the young man record their love in one of the book’s illustrations. Her husband – ironically named The Protector – exacts a terrible revenge.

This acclaimed staging by British director Katie Mitchell has toured widely to international praise. The Royal Danish Opera’s Reumert Award-winning soprano Gisela Stille performs the role of Agnès, Daniel Okulitch makes his house debut as the Protector, and countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen appears as The Boy.

A co-production with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Dutch National Opera, Opéra National du Capitole Toulouse, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

With thanks to the Obel Family Foundation for its generous support of this production.

Written on Skin runs at the Old Stage from 14 September to 4 October 2025.
Read more about Written on Skin HERE