DEATH
IN VENICE
Welsh National Opera at Wales
Millennium Centre, Cardiff *****
Benjamin Britten’s final opera is a true summation of his
life’s work, a life he knew was coming to an end as he struggled determinedly
to complete the piece. This was a deeply-felt love-offering to his partner
Peter Pears, and so perfectly is the writing tailored to that tenor’s unique
vocal qualities that subsequent performers have found the task daunting. Not so
Mark le Brocq, whose assumption of the role in this Welsh National Opera
production grows movingly through this lengthy portrayal of the moral and
intellectual disintegration of Gustav von Aschenbach, become creatively arid as
the protagonist writer in the Thomas Mann novella which is the basis of Myfanwy
Piper’s adroit libretto.
The opera also bravely confronts Britten’s own
homoeroticism, not least when roused by young boys. Aschenbach is increasingly
obsessed by the beauty of the young Tadziu, a fellow-guest with his Polish
family at the Hotel des Bains on the Venice Lido, and he employs all kinds of
self-deceptions to justify his vain pursuit.
But not only is Death in Venice a confession of Britten’s
own tormented libido, it is also a wonderful compendium of many of his musical
fingerprints through such a tragically short life. Here we have the
Schoenbergian sprechgesang to which he so often covertly resorted, here we have
the three levels of musical colour (piano accompaniment underlying Aschenbach’s
lengthy recitatives, percussion-punctuated gamelan glittering the allure of
Tadziu, full orchestra for the other characters – of which there are many, all
ably undertaken by members of the WNO Chorus), a technique we had admired in
the War Requiem of 1962, and here we have choral dances punctuating stage
action as in Gloriana of the Coronation Year 1953. We also hear, as the opera approaches
its end, Aschenbach’s broken-hearted death very near, the sweetly astringent
sounds of the music of Alban Berg, with whom Britten would have loved to have
studied in his very early days.
This brilliant new production for WNO directed by Olivia
Fuchs brings this thoughtful, perhaps over-cerebral opera to absorbing,
engaging life, aided by Nicola Turner’s designs, and a wonderful panoply of
back-projections where the Lido and La Serenissima lap their enticements as the
music sings of gondola-crossings.
And the most wonderful brilliance of all is elevating
Britten and Piper’s original casting of Tadziu’s family as dancers to now the
dizzy heights of aerial acrobats, the contributions of the deliciously-named No
Fit State Circus punctuating the entire
unveiling of this heartbreaking story with soaring, swooping visual commentary.
Antony Cesar’s consummately attractive and mysterious Tadziu
is but one of this amazing troupe. He is one of a small handful of other major
players supporting Mark le Brocq’s
movingly sustained performance. Alexander Chance’s countertenor as Apollo tries
commandingly to return Aschenbach to rigour and discipline, while Roderick
Williams is superb, colouring his voice as he conveys the many characters whose
blandishments conspire to persuade the hapless Aschenbach to remain in
cholera-afflicted Venice.
Leo Hussain conducts with perfectly-paced timing and feel
for atmosphere, and the WNO Orchestra plays with subtlety, power, and a genuine
feel for colour.
*At Birmingham Hippodrome May 11 7.30pm.
Christopher Morley
ends