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Benjamin/Crimp: Picture a day like this album review – jewel-like precision

Recorded in Aix where the work was premiered, with the composer himself conducting, the beauty of George Benjamin’s instrumental lines shine with this excellent cast

By the time the production of Picture a day like this reached Covent Garden’s Linbury theatre two months later, the cast had changed and Benjamin was no longer the conductor, so it is good to have the chance to hear it with the original Aix lineup. Right from the unaccompanied recitative with which she opens the opera, Crebassa combines determination and steeliness with a suggestion of vulnerability as she undertakes her fruitless quest, while beneath her serenity, Prohaska manages to convey that Zabelle’s path to acceptance has not been an easy one. The other members of the cast take multiple roles in the Woman’s search: Beate Mordal and Cameron Shahbazi are a pair of lovers, and a composer and her assistant; John Brancy a collector and an artisan; all three are excellent.

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