Venecia: un encuentro, una plaga, una muerte

Abstract

Death in Venice is based on the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann, except that in the cinema version the main character, Gustav von Aschenbach, is a musician instead of a writer. Owing to poetic license not always within the layman’s grasp, Luchino Visconti also wished to identify the artist with Gustav Mahler. Beyond such dissimilarities, however, the film is a feasible recreation of the story and a faithful reconstruction of those times: a Venice divorced from its former splendor and invaded by a plague and yet at the same time still able to evoke the captivating, nostalgic legacy of its magnificent past. An ideal scenario indeed for the musical ideas of Mahler, and perfectly reflected in the Midnight Song and the adagietto of his third and fifth symphonies.