English National Opera closes its current season with a golden show, as golden as the Venetian sunshine that is magically suggested in Deborah Warner's admirable direction of Benjamin Britten's final opera, written after Thomas Mann's novella (Der Tod in Venedig, 1912) to a libretto by Myfanwy Piper. Interesting that while Britten was contemplating Mann's book as an opera, that Visconti was already on track to make a movie of it (with Dirk Bogarde as Aschenbach).

Britten retained Aschenbach's occupation of an author (Visconti made him a composer so that Mahler's music was effectively his own) for his adaptation first staged at Aldeburgh in 1973 (Visconti's film appeared two years earlier, and Britten was forbidden to see it!). ENO's revival remains one of its finest achievements in which sets, designs, lighting and choreography are each superb and come together beguilingly. The eye has much to engage with, and all is pertinent to what is unfolded in the narrative and in the music. At times a sultry, holiday-mood is suggested; at others something sinister.

Previously Ian Bostridge was Gustav von Aschenbach, escaping Munich for Venice, if only to be ensnared in troubles, attractions and, finally, in a cholera epidemic. Put simply, for this revival, John Graham-Hall is outstanding in the role. And what an extensive and demanding part this is (written for Peter Pears, then in his early sixties). Graham-Hall inhabits all of Aschenbach's philosophies, fears, tantalisations, and not least the feeling of being the outsider; he holds the stage with a vivid but not overplayed portrayal that occasionally veers to Pears-isms, which is understandable, but this is very much an individual and compelling assumption.

Matching him, sevenfold, is Andrew Shore, a gallery of personalities - Elderly Fop, Gondolier, Hotel Manager, and Hotel Barber, among them - to the extent that one is not aware of them being the same singer.

Through wonderful music (some of Britten's most ravishing, exotic/erotic, and eruptive), glorious images and descriptive dancing, not forgetting some sensational singing and acting, this is a revival that really is on for too short a run (five performances only, albeit with three more in Amsterdam and a showing on Sky Arts 2, on 24 June).

To complete the pleasure, albeit a dark and thought-provoking one, Edward Gardner has the measure of Britten's expressive and colourful score - which both suggests new horizons and a glance back to earlier Britten operas - and the ENO Orchestra plays marvellously for him. As Aschenbach dies, the image of Tadzio dancing to the setting sun is breathtaking and unforgettable.