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A Real Triumph
The first Milan performance of
Britten's 'Death in Venice'
impresses GIUSEPPE PENNISI
On 5 March 2011, the audience at Teatro alla Scala was just like any other opening night crowd. Even though evening dresses are no longer required and the onlooker spotted also a few 'blue jeans' under elegant cashmere sweaters, a few ladies were in long gowns and some gentlemen wore dinner jackets. As usual, cellular phones rang until just a few seconds before the start of the performance. There was a rather large presence of music reviewers (including this reporter) -- mostly at the right end of rows 10-13 of the orchestra stalls or in two fourth tier boxes -- because for the first time in Milan, the last of Benjamin Britten's operatic masterpieces -- Death in Venice -- was being staged.
As a matter of fact, even though several of Britten's works are now in Italian theatres' programs (especially after the thirtieth anniversary of the composer's death in 2006), Death in Venice has been staged only in the Lagoon City (in 1973), in Genoa in 1999 and in Florence in 2002, then in Venice again in 2008...
Copyright © 10 March 2011
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
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