United Kingdom Stravinsky, The Rake’s Progress: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of English Touring Opera / Jack Sheen (conductor). Hackney Empire, London, 2.2.2024. (AK)
Manufacturing:
Director – Polly Graham
Designer – April Dalton
Lighting designer – Ben Ormerod
Motion director – Alex Gotch
Solid:
Anne Trulove – Nazan Fikret
Tom Rakewell – Frederick Jones / Brenton Spiteri (singing from Act II)
Nick Shadow – Jerome Knox
Father Trulove – Trevor Eliot Bowes
Baba – Lauren Younger
Mom Goose – Amy J Payne
Sellem – Robin Bailey
Keeper of the Madhouse – Masimba Ushe
It’s debatable whether or not The Rake’s Progress is a neoclassical composition; certainly, students disagree on this subject. Mockingly, the programme notes for English Touring Opera’s present tour put ahead opposing views by two consultants in numerous components of the booklet. Nevertheless, no doubt, this fascinating composition – Stravinsky’s solely full-length stage work and his first main work in English – takes us to eighteenth-century England, as does Polly Graham’s multi-layered staging.
After seeing prints by the English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764) at a Chicago exhibition in 1947, Stravinsky was impressed by A Rake’s Progress, a sequence of eight work (c.1733–5). On the recommendation of his good friend and neighbour Aldous Huxley, Stravinsky requested WH Auden to put in writing a libretto on the theme. The request was granted, the libretto was co-written by Auden and his companion Chester Kallman. Stravinsky obtained the primary draft of the textual content in 1948 and the opera was completed in 1951. Boosey & Hawkes rapidly printed the rating and the opera was premiered on eleventh September 1951 in Venice on the Teatro La Fenice (inside the ‘14th worldwide pageant of up to date music’). Stravinsky carried out, and the solid included Elizabeth Schwarzkopf (Anne Trulove) and Otakar Kraus (Nick Shadow).
The eight Hogarth prints/work present the rise and fall of younger Tom Rakewell. He lives along with his pregnant common-law spouse within the English countryside however, on inheriting some huge cash, he leaves his spouse and strikes to London (the place he wastes his cash on luxuries, prostitutes, and playing). After dropping his cash and thoughts, Tom leads to a Bedlam. These work could be seen within the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London.
Stravinsky retains the identify of Tom Rakewell in addition to the final development to the ultimate destroy. He totally adjusts to his English libretto and creates the musical world of the eighteenth-century. This does embrace, as an example, Baroque-Classical recitatives and arias with harpsichord accompaniment in addition to different references to earlier occasions, however the musical language is that of Stravinsky with unmistakable Stravinsky rhythms and dissonances.
Polly Graham’s insightful staging combines leisure with historic and inventive integrity. My architect visitor for the night, not an opera knowledgeable, completely loved himself as did throughout us within the auditorium. The enjoyment was apparent within the post-performance viewers discussions at Hackney practice station in addition to on the practice. Evidently, the enjoyment didn’t finish with the ultimate curtain name.
Six of the eight Hogarth work cram many unspecified folks into the scenes. Aside from his named roles, Stravinsky provides ‘Whores, Roaring Boys, Servants, Residents, Madmen’ into his solid checklist. Inside his rating he specifies crowds in addition to a clattered stage; as an example, his directions embrace ‘cities folks pouring onto the stage’ (Act II, Scene 2), and ‘the room is cluttered up with each conceivable form of objects: stuffed animals, birds, instances of minerals, china, glass, and so forth.’ (Act II, Scene 3).
As Hogarth and Stravinsky, Polly Graham fills her stage with folks and objects. Admittedly, there may be a lot to absorb whereas the story unfolds however this further dimension provides to an thrilling theatrical expertise.
Whether or not by accident or by design, Graham makes use of some facets from a ballet (La fille mal gardee) by the nice English choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. The maypole dancing in Graham’s staging is paying homage to that within the Ashton’s ballet, and so is the large white plastic horse which, as a substitute of a sedan chair, carries Stravinsky’s Baba the Turk. (The Ashton ballet makes use of a real-life white donkey carrying protagonists within the plot.). Ashton created English life on his La fille stage, as did Polly Graham for her Rake.
The second Hogarth portray reveals a harpsichord participant with eigteenth-century wig and costume sitting alongside many individuals; Stravinsky writes for a contemporary orchestra however specifies harpsichord or fortepiano for the keyboard. Polly Graham places the harpsichord and ETO’s totally costumed and wigged harpsichord participant (Satoko Doi-Luck) on the stage: I’m not positive if this was owing to lack of area within the orchestral pit or unbiased staging machine however for positive it was true to Hogarth.
Below conductor Jack Sheen, ETO’s musical efficiency was exemplary. Their ensemble work was placing each on stage in addition to within the orchestra. A tragic instance of ensemble excellence was demonstrated by Tom Rakewell’s half carried out concurrently by Frederick Jones and Brenton Spiteri. Previous to the curtains going up we had been instructed that Frederick Jones had simply returned from sickness. A worrying announcement to listen to however Jones sang effectively, though I believed he may need had a slight chilly. Nevertheless, clearly all was not effectively and from the second act Spiteri sang from the edges and Jones continued to behave on stage: this was a exceptional double act delivered with integrity and high quality.
Solo singers, orchestra and refrain would have made Stravinsky blissful. For my ears, tenor Brenton Spiteri (when singing Tom) and mezzo-soprano Lauren Younger (Baba) significantly captured the essence.
ETO’s Rake is insightful, entertaining and of top of the range: don’t miss it.
Agnes Kory
For extra about ETO on tour click on right here.
Featured Picture: English Touring Opera’s The Rake’s Progress © Richard Hubert Smith
