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Benjamin Britten SYMPHONY FOR CELLO AND ORCHESTRA, OP. 68 DEATH IN VENICE SUITE, OP. 88

Raphael Wallfisch

Steuart Bedford English Chamber Orchestra

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Death in Venice | Benjamin Britten, libretto by Myfanwy Piper Film by Tony Palmer (1980) Robert Gard - Gustav von Aschenbach John Shirley-Quirk - Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus James Bowman - Voice of Apollo English Chamber Orchestra, Steuart Bedford

I was looking for a clip of Theseus and Hippolyta's entrance in A Midsummer Night's Dream, because "This day will quickly steep itself in night; / This night will quickly dream away the time" has been spinning through my head all morning -- but then I got distracted by the discovery that Tony Palmer's film of Death in Venice, commissioned by Peter Pears, is available full-length on YouTube.  It was filmed on location in Venice and is quite beautiful.  Shirley-Quirk, for whom the baritone roles were written, is particularly excellent.

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Death in Venice, Op. 88, Act I "Mysterious gondola" | Benjamin Britten, libretto by Myfanwy Piper after the novella by Thomas Mann Peter Pears, tenor; English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Steuart Bedford

Mysterious gondola, a different world surrounds you, a timeless, legendary world of dark, lawless errands in the watery night. How black a gondola is – black, coffin black, a vision of death itself and the last silent voyage. Yes, he rowed me well. But he might have done for me, rowed me across the Styx and I should have faded like echoes in the lagoon to nothingness.