Picture a Day Like This is the latest operatic collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp (Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence).  It’s basically an hour long chamber opera written for five singers and chamber orchestra and it’s now been recorded for CD by Nimbus.

The basic plot line is that a child has died but her mother can revive her if, within 24 hours, she can obtain a sleeve button from a truly happy person.  She is given an itinerary to follow to find the likely candidates.  In the course of six scenes she encounters two lovers whose relationship is apparently idyllic until the question of what “open” means comes up.  (It’s possibly the first serious use of the idea of polyamory in the modern sense in an opera.)  There’s an artisan who is superficially happy though he turns out to be going nuts because he’s been replaced by a machine.  There’s a composer who is immensely successful but full of self doubt and a collector who owns everything he admires but is utterly alone.  The only truly happy person is the enigmatic Zabelle… who turns out not to exist.

The libretto is clever, concise and poetic and the score is every bit as good as Benjamin’s previous operas.  All the colours of a full orchestra are there in a much smaller ensemble.  It’s sometimes quite spare and sometimes much denser.  It’s quite chromatic and occasionally quite atonal but not aggressively so.  There’s some lovely writing, especially for the woodwinds and the lower strings.  The vocal line is intriguing but not flashy and it serves the text.  Benjamin again demonstrates his preference for high voices; two sopranos, a mezzo, a counter-tenor and a baritone with a serious upper extension, but the text is still clearly understandable without reference to the printed text.

The singers are terrific.  At the core is mezzo Marianne Crebassa as the Woman.  It’s a nuanced and heartfelt performance.  The Lovers and the Composer and her assistant are sung by soprano Beate Mordal and counter-tenor Cameron Shahbazi.  They are excellent together in the relatively dense “conversation” of the Lovers scene and Mordal portrays the insecurities of the Composer effectively.  The parts of the Artisan and the Collector were written specifically with baritone John Brancy in mind.  His supple and rather beautiful baritone is used to good effect but it’s his apparently effortless extreme upper extension that Benjamin really exploits.  The gorgeously voiced Anna Prohaska is lovely as the mysterious Zabelle.  Benjamin conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra which sounds terrific.

I’m not a massive fan of audio only recordings of opera but this one is so “conversational” that I didn’t miss not having the staging.  In fact I wonder how on earth it was staged!  It was recorded live at the Theatre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence in July 2023 but it sounds like a really good studio recording.  It’s extremely vivid and well balanced.

The recording is due for release on September 65th 2024 in physical CD and digitally; MP3, and 44.1kHz/16bit and 48kHz/24 bit resolutions in WAV, ALAC and FLAC formats.  I listened to standard res WAVs.  The booklet has the full text plus a synopsis and background material.

This is another terrific work by Benjamin and Crimp superbly performed and recorded.  Add to that, for me this is the future of opera especially in cash strapped North America; great music theatre on a chamber scale and not four hours long.  Recommended.

Catalogue info: Nimbus Records NI 8116