Death in Venice (complete opera recorded in 2013)
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BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Death in Venice (complete opera recorded in 2013)
English National Opera / John Graham-Hall, Andrew Shore, Tim Mead / Edward Gardner (cond)
[ Opus Arte DVD / DVD ]
Release Date: Monday 3 March 2014
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Suitable for General Audiences
Recorded live at The London Coliseum, June 2013
John Graham-Hall (Gustav von Aschenbach), Andrew Shore (Traveller/Elderly Fop/Gondolier/Barber/ Hotel Manager Player/Dionysus), Tim Mead (Apollo), Sam Zaldivar (Tadzio), Laura Caldow (The Polish Mother), Mia Angelina Mather/Xhuliana Shehu (Her Two Daughters), Joyce Henderson (The Governess), Marcio Teixeira (Jaschiu, Tadzio's friend), Orchestra and Chorus of the English National Opera, Edward Gardner (conductor) & Deborah Warner (director)
Deborah Warner's beautiful and evocative production of Britten's final operatic masterpiece has been acclaimed as an 'exquisitely achieved marriage of music, drama and design' (The Independent). In Britten's luminous and compelling interpretation of Thomas Mann's classic novella, the ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach's infatuation with the Polish boy Tadzio and his subsequent decline are portrayed in a 'remarkable and harrowingly believable' performance (The Guardian) by John Graham-Hall, who had already won golden opinions for singing the role of Aschenbach at La Scala. The superb ENO chorus and orchestra are conducted by Edward Gardner, a long-standing champion of Britten's music.
Running time: 153 minutes
Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/KO
"Warner's production is worthy of this magnificent work, and she has secured disciplined and stylish performances from her cast. Visually it is both stunning and haunting...So much depends on the role of Aschenbach, and here John Graham-Hall does a fine job...Andrew Shore is superb; he manages to give each one an individuality...So is this the best 'Death in Venice' on DVD? I suspect it is, for it is very fine." MusicWeb International, 3rd June 2014
"It's not often one can say a production is improved by viewing on a small screen but, for me, this one was...Graham-Hall is a real stage-animal, convincing us utterly of his descent into obsession...Above all, every colour, timbre and texture of this richly imaginative score comes blazing through under Gardner's baton." BBC Music Magazine, August 2014 ****
"[Graham-Hall ] is parsimonious with the opera's vocal beauty (the recitatives are invariably more telling than the passages of arioso) but he has stamina, clear words and the ability to penetrate to the heart of the role...No other performance on DVD has presented the psychological dilemma posed by Thomas Mann and Britten with such intensity." (Gramophone)
