![]() ![]() It is a moving and troubling tale that has won its spurs in Britten’s final opera and the Hamburg Ballet alike. ![]() Contracting cholera, Aschenbach’s febrile descent leaves him a skeleton of a man, rattling with infatuation. But this fascination quickly devolves into obsession as he follows the unwitting youth from street to beach, tussling with Platonic ideals and a pounding heart. Here he is intrigued by a beautiful young boy, Tadzio, who at first appeals to the writer’s Apollonian values. ![]() Thomas Mann’s fevered novella concerns Gustav von Aschenbach, a celebrated author who finds himself mysteriously drawn to the Lido island in Venice. Suggesting both distraction and inspiration, it is a profound and disturbing touch with regards to the pederasty at the centre of this story. In Ivo van Hove’s production of Death In Venice, the pram begins even closer: right next to the writing desk. ‘There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hallway,’ Cyril Connolly controversially quoted. ![]()
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