#BSOdeathinvenice

Death in Venice

Premiere on 16. July 2027

Composer Benjamin Britten. Libretto by Myfanwy Piper based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann.

Opera in two acts (1973)

Recommended for ages 16 and up

In English. With surtitles in German and English. New Production.

Introductions (in German) take place one hour before the start of each performance (except on opening night) in the Gartensaal. Seating is limited, duration approx. 20 minutes.

The premiere will be broadcast live on BR Klassik. Following the performance, the “Kritische Trio” will discuss the premiere live on BR Klassik. The discussion will be available to watch on Staatsoper.tv the following day.

>>> To the introductory matinee

Thomas Mann's legendary novella, Death in Venice, inspired two works of the 1970s aimed at creating a synthesis of the art: Luchino Visconti’s eponymous film, which in cinemas in 1971 made the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 world famous, and two years later the final opera by the already terminally ill Benjamin Britten, which celebrated its world premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival. In Death in Venice, driven by a creative crisis, the writer Gustav von Aschenbach flees to Venice from his hometown Munich, where he falls for the young Pole, Tadzio, and dies during a cholera epidemic. This outwardly low-in-action plot is based on a mythological symbolism that portrays the city of canals and palaces as an allegory of decay. The writer’s internal conflict between dignity and loss of control, clarity and ecstasy, appears as a trial of strength between the warring gods, Apollo and Dionysus. The lagoon city’s inhabitants accompany Aschenbach’s decent into the bottomless abyss of self-forgetfulness as ill-fated messengers. The object of desire, in which the tragic hero tries to see the elegance of ancient ideals of beauty realized, is danced by a silent performer and accompanied on the drums by misty, distant archaic melodies. What staging does director Vasily Barkhatov, praised for his psychologically sophisticated work, find with his Munich debut for a world that appears so exaggerated and idealized through the main character’s subjective view?

Born into a journalist dynasty, Vasily Barkhatov has been a lover of the opera since childhood, and experienced rehearsal and performance visits with key German-language directors during a study trip to Berlin as formative. Christoph Marthaler, Peter Konwitschny and Hans Neuenfels changed his view of theatre, and following his studies he found guidance in his compatriot Dmitri Tcherniakov. At just 22 he staged a production at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as its youngest director, at 33 he made an impressive stir with the world premiere of Aribert Reimann’s L’Invisible at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, praised as a surreal, fascinating psychological thriller at the time. The bibliophile director in particular finds inspiration for his productions, in which by preference he brings psychological trauma to the stage, in books as the “concentrated experience of humanity”. The intensive collaboration with costume designer Olga Shaishmelashvili and stage designer Zinovy Margolin, has already been going strong for over ten years, with numerous joint projects completed on the great stages of Europe. With their debut work at the Bayerische Staatsoper, the direction team sees the writer Gustav von Aschenbach’s Venetian journey as a confrontation with himself. British conductor Edward Gardner arranges the Apollonian and Dionysian sound spheres here, having already conducted the last premiere of a Benjamin Britten opera at the Bayerische Staatsoper with Peter Grimes.

Cast

Conductor
Edward Gardner
Director
Vasily Barkhatov
Stage Designer
Zinovy Margolin
Costume Designer
Olga Shaishmelashvili
Lighting
Alexander Sivaev
Chorus
Johannes Lamprecht
Dramaturge
Lukas Leipfinger

Gustav von Aschenbach
Allan Clayton
Der Reisende (auch: Der ältliche Geck / Der alte Gondoliere / Der Hotelmanager / Der Hotelcoiffeur / Der Anführer der Straßensänger / Die Stimme des D
Etienne Dupuis
Tadzio
N.N.
Die Stimme des Apollon
Hugh Cutting
Hotelportier / Glasbläser
Simeon Esper
Bootsmann auf dem Lido / Fremdenführer in Venedig / Polnischer Vater
Jamie Woollard
Erdbeerverkäuferin / Spitzenverkäuferin
Antonia Cáceres
Hotelkellner
Martin Snell
1. Gondoliere
Samuel Stopford
2. Gondoliere
Daniel Vening