Sun, Feb. Tadzio causes Aschenbach to confront a hidden part of himself. Before meeting Tadzio, dignity, fame and his work which has gained him an aristocratic title have meant everything to Aschenbach.
At first, he fights against his emotions justifying his fascination for the young man with purely aesthetic reasoning. Ultimately he surrenders to love β turning to life and bringing about his "Death in Venice". Aschenbach is the acclaimed master of formal symmetry and structure β his ballets are modern classics.
.jpg?v=adda4925 "Woman Hamburg")
But now, the artist's fear of not finishing, of failure, clouds his vision. Panic impedes creation. The "Frederick Project" should be his masterpiece, but his concept becomes more and more obscure and confused. Unconscious memories of his poetic, impulsive dead mother distract him from his work.
The court ballerina Β»La BarbarinaΒ« and Frederick the Great, characters of his creative imagination, appear, seeming to demand choreographic form and immortality. An encounter with a mysterious stranger arouses his thirst for travel. He travels to Venice. A strangely familiar gondolier brings Aschenbach across the Lagoon to the Lido. Their glances of recognition and obvious awareness of his celebrity intensify Aschenbach's discomfort. Two effeminate young men dance outrageously with each other, then flirt with Aschenbach.
Irritated he begins to leave. Tadzio, a strikingly beautiful young man, enters barefoot. The youth engages Aschenbach's attention, fires his imagination. Aschenbach observes the playful activities of Tadzio and his companions. The sun seems to turn his attention from intellectual to sensory perception. Tadzio's smile overwhelms Aschenbach. Inspired by Tadzio's presence, he choreographs a pas de deux of true emotional love. An orgiastic dream overtakes him: bodies, tumult and frenzied erotic dance.
