Picture a day like this (text for music)

Picture a Day like This is the fourth collaboration between George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, whose acclaimed partnership produced Written on Skin, Lessons in Love and Violence, and Into the Little Hill. The 60-minute opera is cast in seven scenes and scored for five voices (S-S-MS-Ct-Bar) and twenty-two instrumentalists. It premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2023, with the composer conducting.Picture a Day like This tells the story of a Woman (mezzo-soprano) who has lost her child; if she can meet one truly happy person before nightfall, they will return to life. In her search she meets a pair of lovers, a Composer and their assistant, an Artisan, Collector, and the mysterious Zabelle. Benjamin’s music meets Crimp’s text to create a bittersweet fable on grief and renewal.