MARC ALMOND’S “DEATH IN VENICE”: I thought a bit more today about why I would so love to hear this imaginary opera. A big part of it is that MA would get the distance Britten sometimes seems to lack–Britten’s opera sways into sentimentality, which Mann’s novella stringently avoids. If anything, MA would probably be too scathing; but I’d prefer that error to the sentimental one.

It was then I knew that I’d rather be
with a .22 caliber next to me
than the blond boy…