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7 July 2012 saw the premiere of chilling beauty; a very adult fairy tale. An opera that deals in the transformative power of art itself, it was called Written on Skin - and its dark psychology and unapologetic refinement would go on to make it the most successful new opera of the 21st century.

Its composer, George Benjamin, began writing opera at the age of 12, with a version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin that never got beyond 34 precocious pages. After that, it took him decades to find the right collaborator. He looked for a librettist for 25 years. Playwrights, poets, novelists, screenwriters – endless wordsmiths were sent his way by well-meaning friends and colleagues and publishers, but for him nobody was quite right. He’d almost given up when he met Martin Crimp: a playwright with a gift for cruel, tender, unflinching dramas. The match was right , and the three pieces they've written together have changed the sound, scope, sensuality and brutality of 21st-century opera.

Written on Skin is based on a Catalan fable in which a cruel landowner called the Protector commissions a book to glorify his own life. He hires a boy to write it; only the boy is actually an angel in disguise and begins an affair with the Protector’s wife, Agnès. The book becomes the conveyor of a truth and passion that goes far beyond what the Protector ever intended. When he discovers the affair and Agnès’ newfound independence, he kills the Boy and forces Agnès to eat the heart.

The scenario is bleak, but Benjamin’s music is ravishing. The orchestra gleams as if it’s lit from the inside out, with sounds that are weird and eerie and otherworldly. Who’s ever heard of a bass viol dancing a sultry slow beat with a glass harmonica? The effect is outrageously sensual. As Benjamin said, maybe the only way is to write what he would want to hear, and to just trust the rest.

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3’s Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a ´óÏó´«Ã½ season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This is an excerpt from a recording of the opera's first performance in Aix-en-Provence, featuring the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by George Benjamin, with soloist Barbara Hannigan.

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