Britten: Death in Venice - Langridge/Opie/Chance/Hickox (2004)

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Britten: Death in Venice - Langridge/Opie/Chance/Hickox (2004)

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"As always, Hickox takes his time over the score, but there is less sense of self indulgence than in some of his earlier Britten recordings. He raws playing of high quality and generosity of feeling from the City of London Sinfonia. Add an exemplary choral contribution from the BBC Singers and a typically atmospheric Chandos recording, and there is no reason to resist."

Gramophone's Good CD & DVD Guide 2006

Tracklisting:

Death in Venice, Op. 88 - An opera in two acts

COMPACT DISC ONE
Act I
Scene 1. Munich
01 - Aschenbach: ‘My mind beats on’
02 - (He is suddenly aware of the Traveller…) – Aschenbach: ‘Who’s that?’
03 - Aschenbach: ‘I have always kept a close watch over my development’
Scene 2. On the boat to Venice
04 - Youths: ‘Hey there, hey there, you!’
05 - Overture. Venice
Scene 3. The journey to the Lido
06 - Aschenbach: ‘Ah Serenissima!’ 5:09 67
07 - Aschenbach: ‘Mysterious gondola’
Scene 4. The first evening at the hotel
08 - Hotel Manager: ‘We are delighted to greet the Signore’
09 - Aschenbach: ‘So I am led to Venice once again’
10 - Hotel Guests: ‘The Lido is so charming, is it not?’
11 - Aschenbach: ‘How does such beauty come about?’
Scene 5. On the beach
12 - Aschenbach and Hotel Guests stroll about – Aschenbach: ‘The wind is from the West’
13 - (A group of children play at beach games…) – Strawberry Seller: ‘Le bele fragole’
14 - Aschenbach: ‘Ah, how peaceful to contemplate the sea’
15 - (children’s games with Tadzio as ringleader) – Chorus: ‘Adziù, Adziù!’
16 - Aschenbach: ‘As one who strives to create beauty’
Scene 6. The foiled departure
17 - Aschenbach crosses to Venice in a gondola – Gondolier: ‘Aou’! Stagando, aou’!’
18 - Hotel Manager: ‘Naturally, Signore, I understand’
19 - Hotel Porter: ‘There you are, Signore, just in time’
20 - Aschenbach: ‘I am become like one of my early heroes’
21 - Hotel Manager: ‘A thousand apologies to the Signore’
Scene 7. The Games of Apollo
22 - Chorus of Hotel Guests: ‘Beneath a dazzling sky the sea…’
23 - Chorus: ‘No boy, but Phoebus of the golden hair’
24 - Chorus: ‘See where Hyacinthus plays’
25 - Chorus: ‘Phaedrus learned what beauty is’

COMPACT DISC TWO
01 - Chorus: ‘First, the race!’
02 - Chorus: ‘Try your skill’
03 - Chorus: ‘Young discobolus’
04 - Chorus: ‘Up and over’
05 - Chorus: ‘Measure to fight’
06 - Aschenbach: ‘The boy, Tadzio, shall inspire me’

Act II
07 - [Orchestral introduction]
08 - Aschenbach: ‘So, it has come to this’
Scene 8. The Hotel Barber’s shop (i)
09 - Hotel Barber: ‘Guardate, Signore!’
Scene 9. The pursuit
10 - Aschenbach is crossing to Venice – Aschenbach: ‘Do I detect a scent?’
11 - (Aschenbach begins following the family) – Aschenbach: ‘And now I cannot let them out of sight’
12 - Chorus: ‘Kyrie eleison’
13 - Aschenbach: ‘Gustav von Aschenbach, what is this path you have taken?’
Scene 10. The Strolling Players
14 - Hotel Porter: ‘This way for the players, Signori!’
15 - (The Leader of the Players comes forward…) – Leader of the Players: ‘La mia nonna always used to tell me’
16 - Leader of the Players: ‘Fiorir rose in mezo al giasso’
17 - A Young English Clerk: ‘One moment, if you please’
Scene 11. The travel bureau
Scene 12. The Lady of the Pearls
18 - Aschenbach walks up and down agitatedly – Aschenbach: ‘So it is true, true, more fearful than I thought’
19 - Aschenbach: ‘So – I didn’t speak!’
Scene 13. The dream
20 - Voice of Dionysus: ‘Receive the stranger god’
Scene 14. The empty beach
21 - Aschenbach slowly moves to his chair on the beach… – Aschenbach: ‘Do what you will with me!’
Scene 15. The Hotel Barber’s shop (ii)
22 - Hotel Barber: ‘Yes! a very wise decision, if I may say so’
Scene 16. The last visit to Venice
23 - Aschenbach, with his new appearance, is seen getting gaily into a gondola – Aschenbach: ‘Hurrah for the Piazza’
24 - Aschenbach: ‘Does beauty lead to wisdom, Phaedrus?’
Scene 17. The departure
25 - Hotel Manager: ‘The wind still blows from the land’
26 - (The Hotel Manager watches Aschenbach go out to the deserted beach…) – Aschenbach: ‘Ah, no!’

Gustav von Aschenbach - Philip Langridge, tenor
The Traveller, The Elderly Fop, The Old Gondolier, The Hotel Manager, The Hotel Barber, The Leader of the Players, The Voice of Dionysus - Alan Opie, baritone
The Voice of Apollo - Michael Chance, counter-tenor

BBC Singers
City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox, conductor