Thomas Mann's 1912 novella
Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice) tells of the ageing poet
Gustav von Aschenbach, who on holiday in
Venice sees a Polish family, among them a 14-year-old boy of
angelic beauty, who he learns is called
Tadzio. Von Aschenbach prolongs his stay in Venice to watch Tadzio, who inspires him like a
Greek god but who of course also awakes unwelcome worries for the ascetic, disciplined poet. Even when he hears the rumour that
cholera is abroad, von Aschenbach delays his departure, and succumbs to it.
Mann's hero bears two significant names: Gustav comes from Gustav Mahler, whom Mann had seen in tears leaving Venice. In 1911 Mann, while on holiday in Venice, heard of Mahler's death. He had also actually seen a beautiful Polish boy, and these two themes fed into his new story. The other significant name is of the medieval German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach.
My first paragraph explains all the plot that's needed, while asterix writing above goes into its meaning. The beauty of Mann's prose is what has made it a modern classic. It is also very well known in two famous adaptations.
Luchino Visconti's 1971 film La Morte in Venezia cast Dirk Bogarde as von Aschenbach, Marisa Berenson as his wife, Silvana Mangano as Tadzio's mother, and the 16-year-old Swedish boy Björn Andresen as a luminously androgynous Tadzio, merely seen, unspeaking, glancing, floating. Andresen did a little bit of acting in Sweden in later years, but is known solely for this visual part. (And, oddly, for a rather bizarre rumour that he'd been involved with the death of actor Sal Mineo; Andresen denied even having been to America; and is today an accountant.) In honour of Mahler, Visconti made von Aschenbach a composer, and as music used the adagietto from his Symphony No. 5, an association now so deeply engrained that the symphony is now invariably introduced as the one featuring in Death in Venice.
Benjamin Britten's 1972 opera Death in Venice was his last. It had a libretto by Myfanwy Piper (wife of the painter John Piper), who had also worked with Britten on The Turn of the Screw. The role of Aschenbach was created by Britten's partner, the tenor Peter Pears, and the opera was dedicated to him. It also features the contrasting voices of Apollo and Dionysus, the two principles tearing Aschenbach between them. Tadzio is a danced part.
www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11469
http://www.bfi.org.uk/collections/release/deathinvenice/index.html
www.auschwitz.dk/Venice.htm
www.naxos.com/NewDesign/fintro.files/bintro.files/operas/Death_in_Venice.htm
Written while listening to a performance on Radio 3 of Britten's opera