Death in Venice, Garsington Opera, review: 'perfectly measured'

Every time I hear Death in Venice, my feelings about it shift. Britten’s last major work, written as his heart weakened and the shadows of mortality lengthened, is profoundly melancholy. In the wrong hands, the pace can drag listlessly as it seems to lack energy and exuberance. But strongly performed, its fundamental quality emerges as an almost cinematic fluency, moving back and forth between Aschenbach’s interior monologue and scenes of city life, painted in sound with hallucinatory clarity.

Tantamount to a confession of the composer’s tortured sexuality, it is also a disquisition on the nature of artistic inspiration – reflecting on the platonic line that runs from desire to beauty and creativity. What I can never decide is whether the result should rank in Britten’s oeuvre as a valedictory statement, rich in mature wisdom, or the lament of an exhausted genius for his failure as a human being.

• Top ten opera stars

Garsington’s new production does not settle the question: probably the answer is both. But at least there could be no doubt here about the authority of the conducting: Steuart Bedford, now aged 75, led the first performance of this piece 43 years ago.

Today his interpretation is perfectly measured, catching all the score’s febrile anxiety as well as its brief arcs of glowing lyricism and its brilliantly characterised vignettes of the Venetian scene. The latter was populated here by a host of young singers, all of whom made their mark as Britten intended, and presided over by William Dazeley, splendidly sinister and incisive in a variety of guises and personae.

^{Celestin Boudin as Tadzio and Paul Nilon as Aschenbach (Alastair Muir)}

Paul Nilon played Aschenbach for the first time. He is a most intelligent singer, who phrases thoughtfully and never lets text slip into mush. The problems are the idiosyncratic gargling quality to his delivery, and an over-egging of queeny pathos and prissiness: the character is only moving if he we sense a buttoned-up exterior that disdains emotional display and vulgarity. But this Aschenbach let it all hang out, both vocally and emotionally, as if begging for our compassion.

• The world's most glamorous opera stars

Paul Curran’s staging, unfussily designed by Kevin Knight, was in most respects excellent, particularly in its adroit handling of the ebb and flow of the Venetian scene. But Celestin Boutin’s Tadzio was presented too knowingly, without untouchable hauteur or unfathomable enigma, and the attempt to balleticise his family was misjudged, if not ludicrous.

Until July 10

Tickets: 01865 361636; garsingtonopera.org