Death in Venice review: Strength and beauty in new take on story of infatuation

Nuanced: Mark Padmore as Aschenbach
Catherine Ashmore
Barry Millington22 November 2019

Myfanwy Piper’s libretto for Britten’s Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann’s novella, is both richly poetic and an intellectual challenge.

As the writer Gustav von Aschenbach oscillates between his cerebral artistic calling and his inner sensuality, Piper’s libretto doesn’t shrink from Apollonian/Dionysian polarities and Socratic dialogue. Much of Britten’s late-period score matches this inwardness with a pared-down aesthetic of its own.

For stretches of the 90-minute first act there was, however, a palpable lack of immediacy and physical charge — though Richard Farnes’s conducting is always sentient — and too little compensatory energy in David McVicar’s strong but rather conventional new production. There is one highlight, when the idolised boy Tadzio (a danced role) is raised in a gymnastic display above everyone’s heads in perfect sync with surges in the music.

The second act fares much better, the most powerful moment being in Aschenbach’s dream of the gods Apollo and Dionysus battling

over his soul: here his sensual longings are embodied in the form of Tadzio cavorting with him (albeit gracefully) in his bed. Apollo (the admirable Tim Mead) is also represented by more than just his voice in this production.

We could have done with more such dramaturgical input, though I did like the notion of Tadzio being far from oblivious of Aschenbach’s attentions. And Tadzio is also given a moving choreographed sequence to complement Britten’s neo-Mahlerian threnody in the final moments of the opera. Leo Dixon, who moves with godlike elegance, seized his moment.

Mark Padmore brings to the role of Aschenbach the subtle, nuanced qualities of his Bach and Lieder singing. Gerald Finley takes the multiple bass-baritone roles and vividly characterises the Elderly Fop (with ghastly orange wig), the Hotel Barber and the Leader of the Players. By comparison his Hotel Manager is, though well sung, somewhat bland.

Vicki Mortimer’s handsome designs also incorporate a stage-wide “authentic Venetian gondola”.

Until Dec 6 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk)

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