BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913–1976)

 

Death in Venice, Op.88

 

An opera in two acts

Libretto by Myfanwy Piper based on the short story by Thomas Mann

 

Gustav von Aschenbach, a novelist ......Philip Langridge - tenor

The Traveller

The Elderly Fop

The Old Gondolier

The Hotel Manager . .........................Alan Opie - baritone

The Hotel Barber

The Leader of the Players

The Voice of Dionysus

The Voice of Apollo ..........................Michael Chance - counter-tenor

 

Youths and girls, hotel guests and waiters, gondoliers and boatmen, street vendors, touts and beggars, citizens of Venice, choir of St Mark’s, tourists, followers of Dionysus BBC Singers

 

Stephen Betteridge chorus master

City of London Sinfonia

Nicholas Ward - leader

Martin Fitzpatrick assistant/ Richard Hickox

 

Many of those involved in this recording remarked that they felt as if they were witnessing a small piece of musical history in the making. The

recording was always going to create a stir, for Richard Hickox’s existing accounts of Britten’s operas (listed across the page) are highly regarded

and are often compared favourably with the composer’s own benchmark versions, but to have secured Philip Langridge, universally regarded as an

Aschenbach to rival that of Peter Pears, the tenor for whom the role was written, was a great achievement; his performance is, quite simply,

mesmerising.

 

I remember hearing Peter Pears at Covent Garden as Gustav von Aschenbach in one of his last stage appearances in this work: it was, needless to say, an unforgettable experience. Here, some 30 years on, is only the second complete recording of the work, and very impressive it is too. Hickox once again shows off his Britten credentials and Langridge’s Aschenbach is as complex and fascinating as ever.

Gramophone

 

Chandos CHAN10280-2