death in venice britten review

(Credit: Catherine Ashmore) David McVicar’s new production of Britten’s late masterpiece “Death in Venice” is a brooding and elusive meditation on the tribulations of aging creativity and its relationship to death and desire. Britten's last opera is a classic, a sour epitome of his immense artistic legacy which is gaining, step by step, the place it deserves in the operatic repertoire. Director David McVicar’s take on Britten’s Death in Venice has just opened at the Royal Opera House; it’s the first of two Britten operas performed in the 2019/20 Season as part of The Royal Opera’s ongoing Britten cycle. Death in Venice review – Britten’s opera dazzles and glows. Even before the opera starts, the beauty of Venice takes hold. Death in Venice may well have represented the unleashing of a lifetime’s repressed feelings, yet Britten’s vision was wider, more ambitious: it’s about the essence of art itself. Peter Pears confided that “Ben is writing an evil opera, and it is killing him,” which no doubt prompts cured autobiographical readings of the work. However, he cannot bear to leave Tadzio and stays on in Venice. But here Myfanwy Piper’s libretto for Britten’s Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann’s novella, is both richly poetic and an intellectual challenge. It’s impressively, wholeheartedly done. The strip of sea that evokes Venice Lido is emblematic of David McVicar’s new staging of Benjamin Britten’s final opera, Death in Venice, not seen … Benjamin Britten's final opera hasn't been staged by The Royal Opera in over 25 years, but his setting of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice receives a great new production by Sir David McVicar. Written under the shadow of mortal illness, Death in Venice is Britten’s last operatic testament - not only a summation of his musical praxis, but also a … The Royal Opera House's link to Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice goes back to almost the very beginning, though the work has not been a frequent visitor. Director David McVicar’s take on Britten’s De ath in Venice has just opened at the Royal Opera House; it’s the first of two Britten operas performed in the 2019/20 Season as part of The Royal Opera’s ongoing Britten cycle. When Britten wrote Death in Venice he suffered from a severe heart condition that was fatally aggravated by his reluctance to undergo surgery before finishing the opera. The work presents a great writer suffering writer's block who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed, by the sight of a stunningly beautiful youth. Here is Death in Venice in high Visconti style, ravishingly designed in greys and silver blues, and inimitably Italian in the classical elegance of its settings. Death in Venice emerges anew, without some of the archness to which Britten and his librettists were so susceptible, yet with its rich layers of meaning fully intact. Written under the shadow of mortal illness, Death in Venice is Britten’s last operatic testament - not only a summation of his musical praxis, but also a … David McVicar’s Triumphant 'Death in Venice' at The Royal Opera. Death in Venice review – Britten's opera dazzles and glows 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. Apr 07, 2008. David McVicar’s Triumphant ‘Death in Venice’ at The Royal Opera. Death in Venice is a novella written by German author >Thomas Mann, first published in 1912 as Der Tod in Venedig. Death in Venice, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, review: an impeccably tasteful, searingly intense staging of Britten's final masterpiece ... Perhaps, though, that is changing, after Deborah Warner’s Billy Budd earlier this year comes this equally big-scale Death in Venice, staged here for the first time in 25 years. The strip of sea that evokes Venice Lido is emblematic of David McVicar’s new staging of Benjamin Britten’s final opera, Death in Venice, not seen …