What happened to the boy Tadzio on the Venetian Lido beach in Thomas Mann's

and Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice ?

"If music be the food of love, play on; give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the

appetite may sicken, and so die. Enough; no more: 'Tis not so sweet now as it was

before." This could be the key to Tadzio's possible story some 40 years later, for

Tadzio, or someone very much like him, cannot relinquish the memory of a piece

of music and all it meant for him. He becomes a violent blackmailer preying on

sexual indiscretions, becoming wealthy enough to employ his own quartet of

musicians to play him Vivaldi bassoon concertos on demand - in prison, in the

courtroom, in the streets, in restaurants, swimming-pools, in his bedroom when he

is making love to his mistress. He lives a lie as a macho functioning heterosexual

because of his boyhood seduction by a Venetian bassoon player who played Vivaldi

to accompany the thrilling destructive experience he obsessively and hopelessly

attempts to recover. Recovery is an impossibility on every level. His attempts to

relive the experience destroys him.