Leon Cooke - a future star

Leon Cooke - a future star

In the evening to La Monnaie to see a superb production of Death in Venice. The tenor role of Gustav von Aschenbach requires a continuous presence on stage. Ian Bostridge acted and sung the writer’s passionate decline convincingly. But this strength in the production was compounded by two others. The first was the combination of Deborah Warner’s staging and Jean Kalman’s lighting. With a few sparing details, Warner was able to create the atmosphere of Venice, its Lido, its canals and San Marco whilst the Adriatic light on sand and sea was also faithfully reproduced. The second was the dancing and, in particular, the part of Tadzio, played with great aplomb by Leon Cooke. My family saw him in the West End in Billy Elliot and were impressed with him then. We will see much more of this talented teenager, I am sure. The boys’ games and fights in the sand were excellently choreographed. All-in-all, quite a treat.