The Rake's Progress

The Royal Academy Opera's presentation of The Rake's Progress this evening was a thrilling reinvention of Stravinsky's opera. Inspired by eight paintings by Hogarth (A Rake's Progress 1733-1735), the opera with libretto by Auden and Kalman was first performed in 1951. It tells the story of the fall of Tom Rakewell, who falls in with the devil in the form of Nick Shadow, or his alter ego, his redemption being insufficient to save him from the asylum. The asylum scene was moving and beautifully staged: Tom's sense of abandonment resonating with the director's key thematic of cruel disconnection and displacement.

This evening, the climactic ensembles, Nick Shadow's final curse upon Tom, and the asylum scene and associated solos between Tom and his true love (Anne) were all powerful and compelling, and the chorus were superb. But Stravinsky keeps a delightfully ironic kick for the end when the main characters deliver the moral in a feisty A major 'For idle hands and hearts and minds the Devil finds A work to do, A work, dear Sir, fair Madam For you and you'.

Directed by Frederic Wake-Walker and designed by Anna Jones and Charlotte Burton, the production is placed in a surrealistic neo-Georgian space with psychedelic colours often looking out on a revolving dream-like London (which included an appearance from a whale floating across the sky). The costume designs for the chorus were cleverly conceived - the  chorus scene when Tom first enters decadent London is, in the original score, for 'Roaring Boys and Whores' but in this production gender difference is cleverly dissolved with the same sparkling costumes for all - everyone is equally glamorous.

Of particular note is the successful and stylish integration of projection which perhaps in a nod to Hockney polaroid cut ups begins with a subtle pastoral montage of trees and foliage. The collage, animation, AI Image Generation and illustration were the work of Ergo Phizmiz and Lottie Bowater. The many shifts and contrasts in the projections match the action perfectly, producing almost hallucinogenic shifts while not detracting (and indeed reinforcing) the poetry and underlying deep human truth of the action.

The music was performed beautifully, directed by Trevor Pinnock, and it was good to be reminded of the poise and sparkle of Stravinsky's rhythms, harmonies and melodies - including the bubbling, virtuoso angularity of the G major duet Act 2 finale between Tom Rakewell and Nick Shadow.

Tom Rakewell - Ryan Vaughan Davies

Anne Truelove - Cassandra Wright

Nick Shadow - Jacob Phillips

Baba the Turk - Rebecca Hart

Royal Academy Sinfonia and Chorus conducted by Trevor Pinnock

22.11.2022 - Susie Sainsbury Theatre