Choosing A Song To Choreograph To

"Death in Venice", the farewell to the life of Benjamin Britten in the March 8 Velino

Music and concerts
un 13 febbraio denso di nebbia e di umidità. Non so se Benjamin Britten pensasse alla morte a Venezia del padre del Musikdrama quando, appena sessantenne ma già con una grave disfunzione cardiaca (delle cui possibili conseguenze aveva piena contezza), affidò a Myfanwy Piper il compito di ridurre, in 17 rapide scene, il romanzo di Thomas Mann “Der Tod in Venedig”; erano gli anni in cui Luchino Visconti, anziano e già visibilmente malato, aveva portato, con un cast internazionale, la novella sullo schermo, ottenendo un buon successo di critica e di pubblico.


La lettura del racconto di Mann fatta da Britten è molto differente da quella che, più o meno negli stessi anni, faceva Visconti. Nel Italian film director is giving much attention to the attraction as a fundamental aspect of the erotic drama. In the work of Britten, this attraction, although present, is less important than the intellectual crisis of aging and death, the weakened awareness of creativity, to his regret and even remorse for sins committed.


"Death in Venice" is a work of extreme severity, marked by relative poverty, the means used (from the organic instrumental voices and at the same ballet, specially designed for the small theater Aldeburgh). The orchestral fluid flow and continuous, never covers a single word of the beautiful booklet. The musical language is clearly characterized: the chromaticism belongs to the world of Aschenbach, the pace to that of oriental Tadzio.

There are obvious reasons conductors; the initial twelve-tone line of Aschenbach, who returns in several versions, the theme of Tadzio gamelan tone almost to the theme of the second lead, the "death" looming that occurs from time to time in the guise of a traveler, a barber, a gondolier, and so on. It 's a theme introduced at the beginning of the work in the air "Marvels unfold" and that gradually accompanying the bass-baritone performing in various characterizations. Despite the obvious assumption
autobiographical in the work we do not find any aesthetic contemplation of death even if death occurs from the title and the first scene in the cemetery. Britten knew that "Death in Venice" would be his last work. But rather than wait the end (as in Mann's novel and especially in the film by Visconti), the page is a reflection of the sixties youth that no longer exists (the season that once only "of "Scènes de la vie de Bohème" by Murger).

The big idea is the theater of Piper lack of communication between the well-educated, eloquent and refined Aschenbach, on the one hand, and " altri”, dall’altro: Tadzio e la sua famiglia sono mimi che non hanno parola; con i ruoli minori si scambiano solo frammenti di frasi; c’è un unico interlocutore: la morte, nei suoi sette volti interpretati da un unico cantante (il baritono). In effetti, Britten aveva già scritto la “sua” contemplazione della morte, una contemplazione particolarissima di un credente segnato dalla propria omosessualità, la aveva scritta due volte in quei grandi capolavori che si chiamano “Billy Budd” e “War Requiem”, poco rappresentato, il primo, in Italia ma in programma il secondo questa stagione all’Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

Britten è morto il 4 dicembre 1976. Almost 35 years after the end of his earthly existence, the Teatro alla Scala in 2007 proposed the construction product dall'English National Opera in 2009 and went to La Monnaie in Brussels. An excellent idea to bring in Milan, where the work had never been represented, a production model. E 'staged very different from, elementary, created in 1973 in the theater of Aldeburgh and view a few months later to La Fenice, in the only run Italian stage before the Genoese in 1999 resumed in 2002 in Florence and Venice in 2008.
While the production of Genoa-Florence-Venice was struck by the elegance (the construction was entrusted to Pier Luigi Pizzi), using al massimo la tecnologia ed i vasti palcoscenici (sia del Coliseum di Londra sua della Scala), la regista Deborah Wagner ha dato vita ad una Venezia stilizzata in stile Anni 20 con un forte contrasto tra la città (umida , calda e scura perché densa di nubi di scirocco) ed il luminoso Lido. In questa Venezia filtrata dalla memoria, il tenore John Graham-Hall (Aschenbach) in grande forma , contempla la propria vita, inseguito da un Peter Coleman-Whright sorprendente per versatilità e destrezza nei sette ruoli prevista dalla parte. Il protagonista insegue la giovinezza perduta raffigurata da Tadzio (il ballerino Alberto Terribile) ed echeggiata nella voce di Apollo (il controtenore Iestyn Davies).


Graham-Hall ha una vocal style similar to that of Peter Pears, for whom the role was conceived: a solid central register from which stand out sharp. Next to him, while Peter Coleman-Whright shows good consistency voice a little 'subdued (at least so it seemed on opening night). The orchestra of La Scala, conducted by Edward Gardner completes the picture of a memorable show. Gardner emphasizes that more time taken, especially in the second act, make the show even more poignant.


The audience, usually suspicious of contemporary music, has expressed his strong appreciation for the work britteniana. On the evening of the first real ovation for John Graham-Hall and applause throughout the vast company.


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