Lessons in Love and Violence

Sir George Benjamin and Martin Crimp’s gripping opera never lets up – the London Philharmonic Orchestra brings it to our stage in a one-off semi-staged performance. A king, a queen; his favourite and her lover. Power and sex are a dangerous combination, and when the rulers of medieval England played the game of thrones, they either won or they died. The life of King Edward II inspired Marlowe’s classic tragedy, but George Benjamin and Martin Crimp turn it inside out, in an opera that exposes the raw emotions of four characters locked in a deadly embrace. This is Lessons in Love and Violence, and it caused a sensation when it opened at the Royal Opera in 2018. Edward Gardner has assembled a world-beating cast for this one-off semi-staged performance, with director Dan Ayling.