Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress

PERSSON; LEHTIPUU; BAYLEY; ROSE; GORTON; MANISTINA; CLARK; ROCK; LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA; GLYNDEBOURNE CHORUS; JUR

Students of art history have almost as much reason to thank Glyndebourne for this DVD as opera lovers. A video recording of this production already exists from when it was new in 1975 but David Hockney’s designs have never looked as good as they do here, captured with razor-sharp picture quality. This has always been Hockney’s Rake’s Progress as much as anybody else’s. Over 30 years on, casts have come and gone, but his unforgettable designs continue to set the agenda. Are they a brilliant, modern take on Hogarth’s drawings or a visual counterpart to Stravinsky’s neoclassicism? Both, of course, which is why they work so well. In other respects, though, the production has started to feel its age, the atmosphere here being sweetly naive (on balance a plus) but rather bland (not so good). It is hard to imagine a Tom Rakewell who looks the part better than the lanky, almost adolescent Topi Lehtipuu, his wide-eyed innocence an open invitation to corruption, and he sings the role with elegance. Miah Persson is almost his equal, except that her voice sounds constricted in Anne Trulove’s Act 1 solo scene—a shame, as she is predictably lovely from there on, melting hearts in her lullaby to Tom. The weak link is Matthew Rose’s Nick Shadow, as this magnificent young bass (heard to such advantage in Glyndebourne’s recent CD recording of A Midsummer Night’s Dream) proves unable to create a devilish persona without more help from the director. Elena Manistina makes a suitably exotic Baba the Turk and Graham Clark a brilliant Sellem. The combination of Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra ensures crisp ensemble of the highest quality, and also more warmth from the pit than might have been expected. The main competition comes from Opus Arte’s 2008 DVD from Brussels. In the theatre I easily preferred Glyndebourne’s production but Robert Lepage’s cinematic take on the opera—Nick Shadow is a Hollywood film director luring a simple Texan boy to a life of glamour and excess—looks splendid on the small screen and the electricity between the Rake and Nick Shadow crackles. The answer may be to get both. © 2012 Gramophone

Price: $54.98

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