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Canadian Opera Company Stages Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice

Oct. 06, 2010

The Canadian Opera Company brings the work of Benjamin Britten to the stage in Toronto this fall with eight performances of Death in Venice. Britten's final opera, Death in Venice stands as the culmination of the composer's unique contribution to the 20th-century operatic repertory. The opera is based on the novella by Thomas Mann, in which the aging novelist, Gustav von Aschenbach (performed by Alan Oke in this production), seeks inspiration for his work in a cholera and plague-stricken Venice and becomes smitten with the bloom of youthful beauty in the person of the boy Tadzio. Edward Greenfield writing in The Guardian comments:

Britten has once again proved the impossible. Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, a compressed and intense story, an artist's inner monologue, lacking conversation, lacking plot, has against all odds become a great opera.

With a libretto fashioned by Myfanwy Piper, Death in Venice premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1973 and was dedicated to Britten’s life partner, tenor Peter Pears. The production runs from October 16 through November 6 at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, under the musical direction of Steuart Bedford, who also conducted the premiere performance in 1973.

For more information on the Canadian Opera Company’s performance of Death in Venice, visit www.coc.ca

For more on Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, visit www.brittenpears.org

For a list of Benjamin Britten’s other works, visit Faber Music's website www.fabermusic.com

Benjamin Britten
Death in Venice (1973)
opera in 2 acts based on the novella by Thomas Mann
libretto (En) Myfanwy Piper
for tenor, bass-baritone, and counter tenor
(2.bcl)2-2.2.2.1-timp.5perc-pno.hrp-str(min 6.4.3.3.2)
145’

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