“Dangerously exciting”—the best Opera on this month

Lessons in Love and Violence

Royal Opera House, 10th to 26th May

The prospect of a new opera from composer George Benjamin and playwright Martin Crimp is dangerously exciting. Following their magnificent 2012 Written on Skin, the composer and his librettist have set the bar high and expectations are accordingly lofty. Assembling the same team that brought Skin to the stage, including director Katie Mitchell and designer Vicki Mortimer, Benjamin conducts his own work inspired by Elizabethan drama. The story centres around a king, compelled to choose between love and political hard-headedness.…