![\"CD](\"https:\/\/www.operanews.com\/uploadedImages\/sample_folder\/CDButton.png\" "\\"CD")
\u00a0Plitmann, Bickley; Mehta, Cox; London Sinfonietta, Benjamin; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Benjamin. Text and translations. Nimbus NI5964<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
GEORGE BENJAMIN’S<\/strong>\u00a0Written on Skin<\/em>\u00a0became a contemporary classic following its 2012 premiere at Aix-en-Provence; less attention has been paid to the British composer\u2019s 2006 chamber opera,\u00a0Into the Little Hill<\/em>. Librettist Martin Crimp, who also wrote the text for\u00a0Written on Skin<\/em>, retells the Pied Piper story as a creepy David Lynchian thriller<\/p>\n There\u2019s an extreme economy of means in this thirty-five-minute work, which is not so much an opera as a musical fable or parable: soprano Hila Plitmann and contralto Susan Bickley portray all the characters, tacking on phrases such as \u201csays the Minister\u2019s Wife\u201d to identify their role at a given moment.\u00a0As the Stranger, Plitmann is soft and seductive as she tells of music\u2019s power to \u201cunravel the clouds\u201d; moments later, she snaps into a maniacal presence, leaping up to a high B on her demand that the Minister swear by his sleeping child. The soprano relishes Benjamin\u2019s colorful word-painting\u2014she breaks \u201crats\u201d into two syllables, with a long pause before the final \u201c-ts\u201d so that it resembles the hiss of an extinguished flame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n