ABSTRACT
It is difficult, perhaps, to imagine two forms of representational art more challenging than ancient Greek tragedy and opera. Both works examined in this chapter, The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema and Lessons in Love and Violence serve as manifestations of the by-default reciprocity of the private and public realms. In the case of Lessons in Love and Violence, the complementation is mutual: the text is not subservient to the music, nor does the music overwhelm the text – such is the essence of Crimp and Benjamin's balanced partnership as it has developed over time, from the early days of Into the Little Hill, to Written on Skin, to the more recent work discussed here. In the case of The Rest Will Be Familiar to You from Cinema, it is Crimp who introduces the musical interjections in the form of considerate inclusions that claim their own space, rather than serving as mere accompaniment to the plot.
