There's  a very interesting article by Ian Bostridge about this in today's Guardian.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2081613,00.html

Be sure to tell us what you think!

I'm in the middle of re-reading it, George, so I'll let you know my conclusions (if any!) when I've finished it. I've always vaguely felt that the ill-health, the musty strawberries, and so on, were symbolic of Aschenbach's mental state, rather than factual events - eats rotten strawberry, gets cholera, dies.

I think that's absolutely true - it's a symbol of decay and the passing of time, the passing of an era whose time has gone, etc.  It's reflected in the tessitura of Aschenbach's part,  rather in the same way that Violette Valery "dies" vocally throughout LA TRAVIATA (first act is popping-around in the coloratura stratosphere... by the end she's barely getting to the top of the stave, except for odd moments that instantly take a toll on her).

I've finished re-reading it now - what an astonishing book it is, so much in so few pages. I've only got it in English, and I kept wishing I could see what words are used in German. There isn't any reference to Aschenbach having cholera, though there are detailed and horrible descriptions of the symptoms - he certainly couldn't have gone to the beach with those! Aschenbach, we are told, is tired, thirsty, unwell, oppressed by the heat, and suffering from "spells of giddiness only half physical in their origin". It's all symbolic, not literal. I think Reiner's got it right.

The opera is very close to the book, and, as in Turn of the Screw, Myfanwy Piper uses actual quotations from the translation from time to time. One big difference, though, is that the Games of Apollo are very much expanded in the opera. This gives a useful choral/dance interlude (it must be fiendishly difficult to stage), but also reinforces my belief that Britten, the top athlete at his prep school and generally a "golden boy",  saw himself in Tadzio (or Tadzio in himself?) as much as he did in Aschenbach.

The reviews I've read online are largely good - even one by someone or other on Bloomberg.com, whatever that is, that describes Aschenbach as a "party bore" (reminded me for incomprehension of Joyce Grenfell's comment that Winterreise is about "Poor little me, on and on") said the music is gorgeous. Comments range from Edward Gardner being the star to the conducting being the worst thing about it, and from Bostridge being "mesmerising" to the part showing his limited acting abilities. Take your pick. It's always a good idea to read more than one review, I find.

Mary, I went last night and I really enjoyed it. It’s taken me a long time to come to appreciate Britten as an opera composer and I’m not convinced I’m completely there yet. I have a number of his operas on disc, yet don’t play them very often. It sounds ridiculously obvious to state that you need to see an opera to understand it properly, but I find that there are plenty of composers whose operatic works can be enjoyed on disc – Verdi, Puccini, Rossini etc. – and can survive dodgy staging on the strength of their music. Britten needs to be seen – Peter Grimes, Billy Budd and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are all fascinating in the theatre, but it’s only MND that I play with any regularity on CD.

I haven’t seen the Visconti film (neither did Britten, who was advised not to see it whilst composing his opera and I gather Ian Bostridge deliberately hasn’t watched it) but, like you, I did read the Thomas Mann novella this week. The staging by Deborah Warner is simple, with a handful of props, voiles, and some video projections of the lagoon waters to conjure up the many short scenes which make up the opera. In the first scene, Mann’s writing is projected across the stage to depict the writer’s block from which Aschenbach is suffering. The lighting is wonderful – to say it’s the best thing in the production seems like damning with faint praise, but it creates the oppressive, cholera filled atmosphere, the hazy afternoons by the Lido, the misty impressions of Venice. People were worried that Ian Bostridge was too young to sing Aschenbach; I’ve got nobody to compare him with, but it worked for me. In the novella, Aschenbach is 53, so not an old man. Bostridge has never struck me as a natural stage performer, he doesn’t look especially comfortable on the concert platform either, but he did very well here – his acting is believable, his singing sublime – he floats his high notes so easily, it really is a beautiful voice – not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’ll do very nicely for me – and his enunciation meant that every word was understood. I thought that ENO surtitled everything now? No surtitles last night.

Peter Coleman-Wright did remarkably well playing the baritone roles – the elderly fop had a certain Barry Humphries feel to it, but the roles were nicely contrasted, from the chatty barber to the vulgar street singer. Tadzio, a danced rather than a sung role, was sensitively and athletically done, the chorus work good. Traditional costumes of the period.

I see that R3 are recording next Saturday’s performance, to be broadcast late in June.

Ho... anyone going on June 2nd? I am. Do let me know if you would like to meet up before or after. Just a thought!!

A