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  There’s an artisan who is superficially happy though he turns out to be going nuts because he’s been replaced by a machine.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. Continue reading →