The Rake’s Progress review – a rare, tender Stravinsky staging

This opera spins its magic on so many levels. The lithe neo-classicism of Stravinsky’s score; the deft, poignant wit of Auden and Kallman’s verse; the moral take-home of Hogarth’s stern allegorical paintings and the modern commentary it becomes. Thomas Adès has described the piece as a flower whose many miraculous layers are there to be peeled back. Performances can be high comedy or dry moralising, yet the best accounts reveal a rare emotional tenderness that Stravinsky lets slip, though he never liked to admit it.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Andrew Davis offered all of the above, albeit gently. The playing was graceful and bright, if a little polite. The Royal Conservatoire Voices were an agile bunch who came into their own in the playful auction scene. This was a concert staging – no sets, no elaborate costumes, orchestra on stage, not in a pit – but the excellent soloists turned a stark strip of stage into brothels and Bedlam, using only their charisma. Much can be done with little if the cast is this good and this up for it.

Andrew Staples made a fine Tom Rakewell, with the sweetness and finesse for the opening and closing scenes – two very different states of innocence – and the laddish swagger to convince in his intervening adventures. American soprano Emily Birsan was an ardent, luminous Anne Trulove and Gidon Saks a huge-voiced and devilishly suave Nick Shadow. Susan Bickley is an impressive stand-in for anyone (Elizabeth DeShong had been advertised), and her sassy Baba was resplendent. Peter Rose was a warmly noble Trulove; Alan Oke was a bit too nice to pull off a properly spivvy Sellem. I shall never forget Catherine Wyn-Rogers, clearly relishing the bit-part of Mother Goose, dragging Tom off stage with a pink feather boa.