January 2021
This tour has been cancelled due to regulations implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, side-by-side with Musicians of the MCO Academy at Orchesterzentrum | NRW, perform Sir George Benjamin's opera Lessons in Love and Violence in semi-staged concert form in Cologne, Dortmund and Essen.
Following the international success of his first opera, Written on Skin, which was written for and premiered by the MCO in 2013, Benjamin partnered once again with librettist Martin Crimp to bring to life the tangled web of power and intrigue that orbited Edward II, a 14th-century English king. The musical drama cuts through with razor-sharp precision, generatin a tense, timeless atmosphere that transports these Lessons to our time, to this new year.
Since 2009, the MCO has been training the next generation of orchestral musicians in this way, sharing their knowledge through the MCO Academy, drawing together talented musicians from across the world for a week of intensive coaching and workshops in partnership with Orchesterzentrum|NRW in Dortmund, before performing alongside their MCO mentors.