Lessons in Love and Violence

Lessons in Love and Violence is an opera with music by George Benjamin and libretto by Martin Crimp.

Similarly his wife Queen Isabella is referred to simply as Isabel, and his son, later Edward III, is listed as 'Boy, later Young King'.

Mortimer criticizes the King's obsession with his lover, Gaveston, at a time when his people are suffering from war and starvation.

The review in The Guardian commented: "[D]espite the care that has so clearly gone into every aspect of the production, it often seems to be the orchestral music that is really in charge of the drama, as if the usual priorities of opera have been reversed.

For all the refinements, Benjamin and Crimp haven’t moved on from Written on Skin [their previous opera] so much as shuffled the cards to play the same game.

"[5] The Stage however praised the opera: "George Benjamin’s new work on the subject of Edward II once again shows his operatic mastery.