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 - Editing, 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.
