The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Death in Venice tiptoes so near perfection, it’s like a prayer of gratitude to the muses. In this case, inspiration came from life. Both the novella’s author, Thomas Mann, and the opera’s composer, Benjamin Britten, had life experiences that fed into the story of an artist’s demise. With world-renowned actor and director Yoshi Oida at the helm of this production, the story is at its most poignant, a masterpiece of beauty and destruction.

Death in Venice reveals the winding journey of novelist Gustav von Aschenbach from prominent success to humiliation, despair and a...