I am not an opera fan, when it comes on the radio I tend to turn off or put on a CD. But the makers of Morse always select pieces that almost make me chanage my mind. The Death of the Self, for the music lover, is a treat.
Set mostly in and around Vicenza and Verona, the sense is of a kind of exotic parallel Oxford, in which Morse is completely at home. Lewis, however, as a good family man, wants to wrap up what he sees as a pointless enquiry and get home for his son's sports day.
Morse's interest in the case is due to the name of Russell Clark, played with creepy intensity by Michael Kitchen, who Morse knows to be a ruthless manipulator and con artist. His interest is justified, but not in the way we initially presume.
The standout performance is from Frances Barber as opera singer Nicole Burgess, recovering from artistic exhaustion. Either Ms Barber has training in operatic singing, or she has studied opera singers very closely, but the director has taken the risk of using extended close-ups of her singing (actually miming, but so well as to convince me, at least), so I assume she has nailed it.
It was not clear to me if Morse has been here before, he speaks Italian with confidence. Possibly his time in the army brought him here. I think he also speaks fluent German when needed.
One of my favourite episodes.