This was absolutely spell blindingly brilliant. I have never seen Britten's last opera (composed 1971-1973) before, although aware of it's reputation as "difficult", with the theme of unrequited homosexual love between an older man and a boy, aged about 13. Britten's original concept was for the boy (Tadzio) and his family to be played by non-singing dancers. WNO used wonderful circus acrobats - enhancing the concept that the boy was literally "out of reach", flying as he was on a trapeze. It worked very well, and the acrobats were amazingly skillful. The lead role of the aged German author, Gustav von Aschenbach (possibly a metaphor for Thomas Mann himself, and in who Britten maybe saw reflections of his own struggles) was taken just for this performance by Peter Van Hulle, who was excellent. The subsidiary male roles (Hotel Manager, fop, barber etc.) were all played by Roderick Williams, who I had never seen in an opera before, and clearly was hugely enjoying himself. Staging was simple, making effective use of projected back drops of sea (the lagoon etc.) and books (Aschenbach's study). After the mis-fire of the Mozart on the previous evening I was hugely impressed by this production.

Upper Circle T16.