ROH - Death in Venice

[Ein Heldenleben]

But I will be going to see Netrebko in Tosca because after seeing her in Macbeth and Forza frankly she could sing Old Time music hall and I’d buy a ticket...

[Master Jacques]

But I will be going to see Netrebko in Tosca because after seeing her in Macbeth and Forza frankly she could sing Old Time music hall and I’d buy a ticket...

Yes - Netrebko certainly addresses the concerns of contemporary audiences, I must agree!

[underthecountertenor]

Well, if I were the ROH I would be arranging an early revival of this with the same cast PDQ. A sensationally good first night (and for once the critics agree).

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks UTC - Seeing it Saturday .. can’t wait .

[Cockney Sparrow]

Grimes and B Budd are firm favourites with me.... When booking came up I thought I "ought to go" and see this. I'm not familiar with it but i have a hunch I'm better off giving it a chance to appeal in live performance rather than listening to a recording to persuade myself of its merits. I seem to have struck lucky with this production and cast.

As I understand the show is sold out, I hope the terms of this review aren't too annoying for readers here:
[INDENT]
Review by Richard Morrison (yesterday) "An unmissable masterpiece…."

You can follow every dark or ironic twist in the story by listening to the myriad imaginative ways in which Britten uses the orchestra, especially the gamelan-style array of jangling percussion…. the first thing to say about the Royal Opera’s superb new production is that under Richard Farnes’s baton this score is delivered as if it is chamber music writ large: every nuance, every ethereal wisp and ominous discord is wonderfully delineated.

…..matched by David McVicar’s fin-de-siècle staging…… glinting shore and shrouding mists of Venice are beautifully evoked….. nothing seems overstated….

The performances of Mark Padmore and Gerald Finley….make the show unmissable….. diction of both singers is so clear that surtitles are superfluous. You will not encounter a finer performance of this autumnal masterpiece.[/INDENT]

[Belgrove]

David McVicar never seeks to distort his productions by setting them on the planet Zog. Rather he adheres to the text and overall concept of the work. This new production is set in the time of the novella’s writing and is certainly sumptuous, elegant and a conventional take on Britten’s final operatic stage work. The opera is rather cinematic in form with brief scenes flowing into each other, and this creates demands of a production to effect the rapid changes, achieved here through shifting pillars, gauzes, lighting and a few props. For all the effective lighting, it is overwhelmingly dark, foreboding and claustrophobic. Those moments when Britten’s score breathes in deeply and is flooded with the Adriatic light of the Lido are imagined through side-stage apertures rather than seen in grand on-stage vistas. This gives the sense of being in a wintery Venice (with an impressively mobile gondola weaving across the mist shrouded stage) rather than a summery and wholesome pleasure resort that curdles into sultry, rank, oppressive sickness. That shifting but pervading darkness is, perhaps, a metaphor for Aschenbach’s inner state as revealed through his numerous monologues, where he first justifies his self-control but gradually succumbs to his repressed desires.

The principals are without fault. Leo Dixon as Tadzio is a First Artist with the Royal Ballet, and although being an entirely mute part, nevertheless establishes his bewitching character with authority through movement and dance. Gerald Finley assumes the roles representing the seven incarnations of Death that propel and goad Aschenbach towards his fall and demise. Each role is vocally differentiated and, since they all look very different too, one might be forgiven for thinking they were played by different performers. This is something of a feat for Finley to have pulled off, but at the expense of recognising these characters represent facets of a composite angel of death. Nevertheless each character was at least unnerving and sometimes downright creepy. Aschenbach is a huge role and Mark Padmore was magnificent. We observe his decline from controlled and upright fastidiousness to a tottering rouè, and it is a distressing undoing to witness. His rendition of the Phaedrus monologue was a thing of great beauty. The clarity of both Padmore and Finely was exemplary, rendering the surtitles entirely unnecessary, and one must praise Britten’s word-setting skills here too. Randall Scotting replaced Tim Mead as the voice of Apollo on Saturday night. It occurred that he actually gives in to Dionysus without much of a fight, revealing Aschenbach’s predilection in a stunningly and disturbingly staged scene.

Richard Farnes’ conducting of this work has gained depth and nuance since he last performed it with Opera North. The wonderful orchestra evoked the torpid heat and sickliness even if these weren’t depicted on the stage, and the realisation of the bells of St Mark’s have a strange Byzantine exoticism overlaid. Britten’s orchestration is gorgeous (is there a better writer for the harp?) and the use of the Balinese inspired percussion was played with precision. The shimmering marimba associated with Tadzio is an inspired invention.

So this was the best thing I’ve seen at Covent Garden in some five years. Musically it is out of the top draw, without a fault. Worth seeing if possible, certainly worth listening to when it is broadcast. The last visual and aural image is haunting. Britten wrote, and Farnes realised, what may be the most exquisite death in opera.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many thanks, Belgrove - you make me wish I could get to see the production, which is the best thing that a review can do.

[gurnemanz]

Well, if I were the ROH I would be arranging an early revival of this with the same cast PDQ. A sensationally good first night (and for once the critics agree).

I hope so, having tried to get a pair of tickets via their "Friday Rush". I logged on as soon as booking opened and was about 300th in line, i.e. hopeless.

[kernelbogey]

This summer's St Endellion Festival gave an intimate foretaste of Mark Padmore's performance as Aschenbach, in the good company of Roddy Williams and Robin Blaze and an in-form chorus and orchestra under the impressive Duncan Ward.

I saw Death in Venice at St Endellion, with Philip Langridge: I see that he died in March 2010, so i think it must have been the summer 2009 festival. Roddy Williams sang several roles. It was fascinating how they used the space of the Church, and made tiny adjustments to costume - a scarf on for one act, say, then off in the next. I'm struggling to remember who condcuted - possibly Bramwell Tovey*...?

*Edit: Martin Brabbins, I am reliably informed by LMP.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I saw Death in Venice at St Endellion, with Philip Langridge: I see that he died in March 2010, so i think it must have been the summer 2009 festival. Roddy Williams sang several roles. It was fascinating how they used the space of the Church, and made tiny adjustments to costume - a scarf on for one act, say, then off in the next. I'm struggling to remember who condcuted - possibly Bramwell Tovey...?

kernel: it was Martin Brabbins. I was there too.

[Ein Heldenleben]

David McVicar never seeks to distort his productions by setting them on the planet Zog. Rather he adheres to the text and overall concept of the work. This new production is set in the time of the novella’s writing and is certainly sumptuous, elegant and a conventional take on Britten’s final operatic stage work. The opera is rather cinematic in form with brief scenes flowing into each other, and this creates demands of a production to effect the rapid changes, achieved here through shifting pillars, gauzes, lighting and a few props. For all the effective lighting, it is overwhelmingly dark, foreboding and claustrophobic. Those moments when Britten’s score breathes in deeply and is flooded with the Adriatic light of the Lido are imagined through side-stage apertures rather than seen in grand on-stage vistas. This gives the sense of being in a wintery Venice (with an impressively mobile gondola weaving across the mist shrouded stage) rather than a summery and wholesome pleasure resort that curdles into sultry, rank, oppressive sickness. That shifting but pervading darkness is, perhaps, a metaphor for Aschenbach’s inner state as revealed through his numerous monologues, where he first justifies his self-control but gradually succumbs to his repressed desires.

The principals are without fault. Leo Dixon as Tadzio is a First Artist with the Royal Ballet, and although being an entirely mute part, nevertheless establishes his bewitching character with authority through movement and dance. Gerald Finley assumes the roles representing the seven incarnations of Death that propel and goad Aschenbach towards his fall and demise. Each role is vocally differentiated and, since they all look very different too, one might be forgiven for thinking they were played by different performers. This is something of a feat for Finley to have pulled off, but at the expense of recognising these characters represent facets of a composite angel of death. Nevertheless each character was at least unnerving and sometimes downright creepy. Aschenbach is a huge role and Mark Padmore was magnificent. We observe his decline from controlled and upright fastidiousness to a tottering rouè, and it is a distressing undoing to witness. His rendition of the Phaedrus monologue was a thing of great beauty. The clarity of both Padmore and Finely was exemplary, rendering the surtitles entirely unnecessary, and one must praise Britten’s word-setting skills here too. Randall Scotting replaced Tim Mead as the voice of Apollo on Saturday night. It occurred that he actually gives in to Dionysus without much of a fight, revealing Aschenbach’s predilection in a stunningly and disturbingly staged scene.

Richard Farnes’ conducting of this work has gained depth and nuance since he last performed it with Opera North. The wonderful orchestra evoked the torpid heat and sickliness even if these weren’t depicted on the stage, and the realisation of the bells of St Mark’s have a strange Byzantine exoticism overlaid. Britten’s orchestration is gorgeous (is there a better writer for the harp?) and the use of the Balinese inspired percussion was played with precision. The shimmering marimba associated with Tadzio is an inspired invention.

So this was the best thing I’ve seen at Covent Garden in some five years. Musically it is out of the top draw, without a fault. Worth seeing if possible, certainly worth listening to when it is broadcast. The last visual and aural image is haunting. Britten wrote, and Farnes realised, what may be the most exquisite death in opera.

I also went on Saturday night and would heartily endorse every word of Belgrove’s review . Can I also praise some excellent singing in the smaller roles particularly Rebecca Evans as the Strawberry Seller and Dominic Sedgwick as the English Clerk? It was very much an ensemble night but Finley and Padmore were absolutely magnificent .
Finally a word for the recitative pianist - beautifully played .
Preparing for the performance I have been listening to the Pears and Langridge (conds Bedford and Hickox) CD’s .Frankly Saturday nights performance would stand comparison with either. I hope they film it....

[kernelbogey]

kernel: it was Martin Brabbins. I was there too.

Thank you - I just couldn't retrieve the right name!

I would not have known how ill Philip Langridge must have been, given his performance!

[LMcD]

kernel: it was Martin Brabbins. I was there too.

Er ... Martyn Brabbins?

[bluestateprommer]

Interesting to see that Gavin Dixon, in his otherwise admiring review of this ROH production from The Arts Desk, comments on a same quibble that Belgrove noted above, regarding Finley's bringing his 'seven faces of Death' to life:

https://theartsdesk.com/opera/death-venice-royal-opera-review-%E2%80%93-expansive-intimate-evocations

"Finley’s impressive acting is a mixed blessing too: he embodies each of the roles so well – the fop on the ferry, the barber, the leader of the circus troupe – that it is easy to forget that we are meant to be inferring links between them."

Every opera production should have such 'mixed blessings' indeed. Regarding the question of filming, that would have to have been planned well in advance, and my gut feeling is that it won't be filmed. But if the ROH was caught by the great reception accorded to this production, they probably are planning for another go in a few years' time.

Getting back to MJ's comment on the Met and 'niche' operas (my term, so I'll take the blame there): the catch is that most financial support for the Met comes from very wealthy private citizens, with very modest government support on various levels (city, state, federal). So one has to deal with the tastes and interests of those who pay the piper. Akhnaten is certainly a huge risk in that context, but given Philip Glass' cachet in the NY scene, that's a risk that's paid off. But that's the exception rather than the rule. However, with YNS taking more and more of a role as the Met's new music director, things might nudge a bit further into the late 20th and 21st centuries. We'll see, assuming we all get that far.

[Nevilevelis]

Interesting to see that Gavin Dixon, in his otherwise admiring review of this ROH production from The Arts Desk, comments on a same quibble that Belgrove noted above, regarding Finley's bringing his 'seven faces of Death' to life:

https://theartsdesk.com/opera/death-venice-royal-opera-review-%E2%80%93-expansive-intimate-evocations

Every opera production should have such 'mixed blessings' indeed. Regarding the question of filming, that would have to have been planned well in advance, and my gut feeling is that it won't be filmed. But if the ROH was caught by the great reception accorded to this production, they probably are planning for another go in a few years' time.

Getting back to MJ's comment on the Met and 'niche' operas (my term, so I'll take the blame there): the catch is that most financial support for the Met comes from very wealthy private citizens, with very modest government support on various levels (city, state, federal). So one has to deal with the tastes and interests of those who pay the piper. Akhnaten is certainly a huge risk in that context, but given Philip Glass' cachet in the NY scene, that's a risk that's paid off. But that's the exception rather than the rule. However, with YNS taking more and more of a role as the Met's new music director, things might nudge a bit further into the late 20th and 21st centuries. We'll see, assuming we all get that far.

Correct - it won't be.

NVV