The Rake's Progress at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam clearly takes the route of emotion. It begins with Anne Trulove who, before the closed curtain, softly and sadly enters the scene with a small bouquet of flowers, which she lovingly lays down. The scene is repeated at the end of the performance and has meanwhile gained in meaning and power. The circle is complete and between these two moments we experience the antics of the "rake" Tom Rakewell.
Igor Stravinsky was inspired for his opera by the paintings of William Hogarth, during a visit to the Chicago Art Institute on 2 May 1947. They struck him as a number of scenes from a play. He wanted to use them as the subject for an English-language opera, for which he had already been making plans since his arrival in America eight years earlier. The poet Wystan Hugh Auden and author Chester Kallman wrote the libretto. The first performance took place on 11 September 1951 at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. Stravinsky himself conducted the "prima assoluta" with the orchestra of the Scala and the role of Anne was sung by none other than Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The performances were more of a "social event" than an artistic success and the wealthy entered the theatre through the canal entrance in gondolas.
The Rake's Progress by Igor Stravinsky is the bizarre story of Tom Rakewell, a young man engaged to a sweet and simple country girl. Her father first wants the assurance that he is not giving his daughter Anne to a good-for-nothing. Tom takes life the easy way, but still wants the world at his feet. He allows himself to be seduced by Nick Shadow, a deceptive figure and a sort of Mephistopheles, who destroys him within a year. After the temptations of perverted city life and an arranged and failed marriage to a lady with a beard, Baba the Turk, Nick Shadow demands a reckoning. Tom does not yet give up and wins the card game that determines his life. Nick Shadow then takes control of his mind. Tom goes insane and spends his days in a madhouse, where Anne visits him one last time.
Great white discovery
The brothers Simon McBurney and Gerard McBurney, director and dramaturg, succeed in presenting the entire opera as an illusion, a dream that is sometimes idyllic, but also false and perverted. They literally start from a "blank page". When the curtain rises, we see the scene as a large white box. A beautiful projection illuminates its walls with a natural landscape as in a painting by Constable. It is the setting of the rural place where father Trulove, his daughter Anne and Tom discuss a possible marriage of the lovers. Throughout the entire opera, that box, which turns out to be made of paper, is the setting that through lighting and projection depicts the location of the various scenes. A brilliant discovery. Nick Shadow makes his entrance on the stage by "tearing" through the paper and the same goes for all the other characters. The material temptations of the city are represented by projections of London skyscrapers and stock exchange tables. For the temptations of perverted business life with drink and sex, a large white bed stands in the room. So-called businessmen and prostitutes (m/f) jump around. A lively occurrence that confuses Tom and captivates him. Baba arrives in a white luxury limousine and her room is like an eighteenth-century palace room in which all her extravagant souvenirs hang not only from the walls but also from the ceiling. One's eyes are not enough to see and follow everything. The card game where Nick Shadow makes Tom's life depend, gets a chilling tension from the four cards with a hand sticking through the bottom. Tom chooses correctly each time and thus spares his life, but Shadow deprives him of his mind. Like a madman, he spends his days in the clean, empty white room.
Pure love versus cunning seduction
Every performance by Julia Bullock, who stands firm in her love for Tom, is a moment of tenderness and hope. Despite his betrayal, she remains faithful to him. Bullock delivers a moving Anne Trulove, who—always entering from the auditorium—remains, as it were, at a distance from the circus Tom has allowed himself to be caught in. Her beautiful soprano sounds warm and from the depths of the heart: a charming woman and singer, the embodiment of pure love. Paul Appleby is disarming in his naivety and heroism. You cannot see him as a negative person, but rather as a victim who unknowingly allows himself to be played with. His drive for freedom and wealth sets him on the wrong path. His vocal timbre is beautiful, controlled and full of power. His energy is directly proportional to the pace with which he heads towards his destruction. David Pittsinger presents a genuinely credible father on stage, a straightforward man with his heart in the right place. Baba the Turk is sung beautifully by countertenor Andrew Watts. He offers a dignified and elegant interpretation rather than a monster or ridiculous creature. And then there is of course the crucial role of Nick Shadow: a yuppie who has the world at his feet and wraps people around his finger. The radiant baritone of Kyle Ketelsen is as nimble as his tricks. His mimicry is grinning and seductive. He succeeds excellently in portraying the true negative character.
Ivor Bolton supports the singers from the (elevated?) orchestra pit with great nuance in their often rhythmically difficult vocal parts that regularly border on dissonance and spoken song. An extremely careful conductor who also guides the Nederlands Kamerorkest through the now playful, then tense score. There are fine details to be heard from, for example, the wind instruments (bassoon, trumpet) and harpsichord. Everything very precisely timed and the scenic jewel musically finished. All praise also for the choir and the extras and of course also for Keira, Baba's cute puppy! A performance in which illusory imagination is combined with heartwarming tenderness on a foundation of tragedy.
- WHAT: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) | The Rake's Progress
- DIRECTION: Simon McBurney
- VOICES: David Pittsinger, Julia Bullock, Paul Appleby, Kyle Ketelsen, Andrew Watts, Hilary Summers, Alan Oke, Evan Hughes
- ORCHESTRA: Nederlands Kamerorkest, Koor van de Nationale Opera conducted by Ivor Bolton
- WHERE: De Nationale Opera, Amsterdam
- WHEN: Sunday 11 February 2018 – performances until 21 February
- PHOTO CREDITS: © Monika Rittershaus