The stars are truly aligned for this latest revival of Olivier Py’s Rake’s Progress, a glitzy production first unveiled at the Palais Garnier in 2008. Underpinned by a strong international cast, this reboot has lost none of its power to draw the ear and the eye. Such is the stage-filling spectacle, courtesy of set designer Pierre-André Weitz, that my only caveat, if it can be described as one, is the wish to see the opera again in order to catch things missed the first time round. The Director fashions an intoxicating and all-embracing approach where Palais Garnier meets Moulin Rouge. Hints of circus and fairground life, alongside echoes of Music Hall, bring jugglers, a dwarf, masked wrestlers, a menage of topless women and a junk-filled auction room to rival any well-appointed menagerie. Yet for all the excess, not forgetting the exotica of Baba the Turk, Py’s vivid imaginings mirror the primary colours within Stravinsky’s score, as well as the spirit of 18th century pastiche which forms the heart of the work.
So much for eye-catching detail; the set is more about suggestion. A tangle of scaffolding alludes to London‘s squalor familiar to the English painter William Hogarth whose 18th century engravings were the stimulus behind Auden and Kallman’s libretto. Dazzling neon rods conjure Mother Goose’s Brothel to which Tom Rakewell finds himself surrounded by skimpily clad whores and roaring boys, while his breadmaking machine is a series of luminous cog wheels – a neat allusion to the passing of time and a reminder that Tom’s wages to the devil must be paid after a year and a day. The glamour is offset by the presence of a skull and hourglass and, if that’s not sobering enough, a skeleton of Tom’s long-lost uncle is intermittently paraded around, adding a farcical chill to proceedings. A bed is also a near-constant presence, occupied for a knee-trembler in the opening scene between Tom and Anne and later between the eponymous Rake and Baba. By Act 3 the bed has become the final resting place for Tom’s incarceration in Bedlam.
Leading the cast is American tenor Ben Bliss whose well-projected tone allies Mozartian ardour with a ringing upper register. From his opening duet through to “death’s approaching wing”, he charts the wastrel’s transformation from callow youth to fop with a well-judged consideration for the “twin tyrants” of appetite and conscience. How he managed to keep his focus when recumbent with half naked ladies of the night will remain a mystery. His diction proved to be the clearest and his attempt, when questioned, to define love was painfully affecting. There was no lack of chemistry between him and Golda Schultz as a silvery-toned Anne Trulove, a role that can appear to be very one dimensional. Yet here she was no bland or vulnerable figure, more a self-possessed, dignified presence of no small stature. Her Act 1 aria “Quietly night” and florid cabaletta (with a fabulous closing top C) were both touching, and her traversal from despair to determination utterly convincing. Indeed, it was doubly effective for Py’s decision to add pregnancy to her role. When she sings “Gently, little boat” in front of her growing child, the tenderness of this lullaby is almost unbearable.
Iain Paterson is an insidious Nick Shadow, singing the role of a gentlemen’s gentleman with a well upholstered and sable bass-baritone, and thankfully not resorting to parody. Elsewhere, Rupert Charlesworth impresses as the melodramatic auctioneer – a role perfectly sung and with just enough campery to create a memorable characterisation. No less memorable is the charismatic American mezzo Jamie Barton making her Parisian Opera debut as the goatee-wearing Baba the Turk. I cannot imagine anyone else fulfilling this imperious yet magnanimous role with so much assurance, her ability to straddle the staff in her Handelian rage aria is stupendous. Cameo roles are well formed with Justina Gringytė as Mother Goose, veteran Clive Bailey as a benign Father Truelove and Vartan Gabrielian as the Keeper of the Madhouse.
The singing from the chorus is well drilled if not always intelligible. Directing the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris Susanna Mälkki strides through Stravinsky’s eclectic score with absolute assurance, if not always able to coax rhythmic precision or an ideal balance from her players. Nonetheless, it’s a striking production that should not be missed.
David Truslove
The Rake’s Progress
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Libretto: W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman
Cast and production staff:
Tom Rakewell – Ben Bliss; Anne Trulove – Golda Schultz; Nick Shadow –
Iain Patterson; Baba the Turk – Jamie Barton; Sellem – Rupert Charlesworth; Father Trulove – Clive Bailey; Mother Goose – Justina Gringytė; Keeper of the Madhouse – Vartan Gabrielian
Olivier Py – Director & Lighting; Pierre-André Weitz – Set and Costume Designer; Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Chœurs de l’Opéra national de Paris; Susanna Mälkki – Conductor
Palais Garnier, Paris, 4 December 2024
Photo © Guergana Damianova/OnP