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List Price: $29.99Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $3.00 (10%)Prices subject to change.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0014381927924
Format: Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 17, 2002
Running Time: 132 minutes
Sales Rank: 53282
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1981
Editorial Review:
Description:
This extraordinary operatic adaptation of Thomas Mann's haunting novella powerfully conveys the book's dramatic impact. Robert Gard stars as Gustav von Aschenbach, an aging writer who visits Venice and sees a handsome boy whose beauty obsesses him. Completely bewitched and agonized, Gustav struggles with his desire to please the boy, but his blind passion leads to his humiliation and eventual downfall. Filmed in Venice, this production heightens the novella's strong sense of tortuous passion straining against the 19th century city's stifling atmosphere of unbearable oppression. Composer Benjamin Britten, who worked closely with conductor Steuart Bedford, meets the challenge of adapting this intriguing story with music that is a constant surprise and revelation.
Amazon.com:
This is a musically and visually superb treatment of a 20th-century masterpiece. Based on Thomas Mann's novella, Benjamin Britten's last opera is not only a story of hopeless, idealistic, vaguely homoerotic love; it touches on deep philosophical questions: the nature of beauty, the agony of creativity and the greater agony of its loss; the ravages of time, the conventions and rituals we devise to mask life's horrible vacuums; ultimately, the mysterious meaning of life and death.
The cast is small and excellent: Robert Gard is the aging writer, Christoph von Aschenbach, whose genius has dried up but seems about to revive in the contemplation of an aristocratic boy he encounters in Venice. John Shirley-Quirk contributes equally to the effect in a half-dozen cameo roles that he pioneered in the first production under Britten's supervision. Steuart Bedford conducted that premiere, working closely with the composer. Director Palmer takes full advantage of the film medium's freedom to make Venice a character--monumental and crumbling buildings, seascapes, canals, bridges, and gondolas; the visuals are often breathtaking. --Joe McLellan
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Tadzio
Excellent production, and wonderful dvd.
To answer a question raised in other reviews, Tadzio is played by British actor Julian Rhind-Tutt, more recently seen in the British hit comedy, "Green Wing".
Rating:  - a fine production, but...
I was pleasantly surprised by this filmic adaptation of Britten's last opera, since I know of many unsuccessful attempts in the direction of filmed operas (e.g., the recent Turn of the Screw). This was obviously a tight-budget production, with a minimum of nature shots in Venice and a lot of studio work, so the final result is a great tribute to the skills and devotion of Tony Palmer. The way he matched the Venice vistas to the music are particularly impressive. Another excellent bit of directing ... Read More
Rating: - conjuring Britten
A gutsy, beautiful looking film, a score which if not Britten's greatest opera is easily one of the most beautiful, a tested and sympathetic conductor, and the great John Shirley-Quirk reprising the Traveller opposite Robert Gard - what's not to love! Palmer makes customary magic with every determining motive behind the camera. Nothing stops his vision. The colors of the film evoke Visconti's, as they might; Aschenbach's Venice isn't changed. What music! Here's an opera that ought to be taken up and ... Read More
Rating: - Tadzio Too Robust
Well, we now have two performances of this opera on DVD: the one by the Glyndebourne opera, and this film from Tony Palmer. It's a film rather than a recording of a stage performance, and, perhaps necessarily, reminiscent of the Visconti film. Some of the lines are so similar that, if I didn't know otherwise, I'd think one artist was stealing from another. It's more visually interesting than the austere Glyndebourne performance, but I kept expecting to hear Mahler rather than Britten. Hallelujah, thank ... Read More
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