Death In Venice

Death in Venice

An opera in 2 Acts, 1973 - Music Benjamin Britten – Libretto Myfanwy Piper, after Thomas Mann

Opéra National du Rhin (February 2021)

« Ah, little Tadziù, we do not laugh like the others. Does your innocence keep you aloof, or do you look to me for guidance? » - Death in Venice, Act 2

CAST

Music direction, Jacques Lacombe

Staging, Set Design, Costume Design, Jean-Philippe Clarac & Olivier Delœuil

Lighting and Collaborator for Scenic Design, Christophe Pitoiset

Artistic collaborator, Lodie Kardouss

Graphic Design, Julien Roques

Video, Pascal Boudet & Timothée Buisson

Dramaturgy, Luc Bourrousse

Toby Spence (Gustav von Aschenbach), Scott Hendricks (Traveller, Elderly Fop, Old Gondolier, Hotel Manager, Hotel Barber, Leader of the Players, Voice of Dionysus), Jake Arditti (Voice of Apollo), Peter Kirk (Porter), Laurent Deleuil (English clerk in the travel bureau).

PRODUCTION

Opéra National du Rhin

ABOUT

Nowadays, in a city that might be Strasbourg. Recluse in a strange assisted living accommodation, a writer undergoes an inspiration crisis while attempting to add a few lines to his latest piece, an experimental autobiography mingled with literary impressions about Venice. Recurrently visited by odd and more or less fantasised figures, the artist in crisis is above all constantly manipulated by his cynical publisher, ready to do anything to  secure the nearly completed manuscript. But the mature writer also has to face visions of his own mother, and of himself as a preadolescent. Fantasising about imaginary Venice(s), the author is soon caught in a no-exit narcissistic delirium preventing him to notice that all around him, in the city, an epidemic rages, causing turmoil among the inhabitants.

Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence
Death in Venice Britten Clarac Deloeuil Toby Spence