McBurney paints a blank canvas in Aix

Paul Appleby (Tom), Hilary Summers (Mother Goose) and Chorus

The Rake's Progress in Aix

Julia Bullock (Anne), Paul Appleby (Tom), David Pittsinger (Trulove) and Kyle Ketelsen (Nick Shadow)

Julia Bullock (Anne) and Paul Appleby (Tom)

By Mark Pullinger, 06 July 2017

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“McBurney never overplays his hand, content to allow the music to tell its own tale”

Reviewed at Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence on 5 July 2017

Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress

Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Conductor

Simon McBurney, Director

Michael Levine, Set Designer

Christina Cunningham, Costume Designer

Julia Bullock, Anne Trulove

Paul Appleby, Tom Rakewell

Kyle Ketelsen, Nick Shadow

Andrew Watts, Baba the Turk

David Pittsinger, Trulove

Hilary Summers, Mother Goose

Alan Oke, Sellem

Gerard McBurney, Dramaturgy

Paul Anderson, Lighting Designer

William Duke, Video

English Voices

Orchestre de Paris

NDT1 in Figures in Extinction: cerebral and physical excellence

Deborah Weiss, 5th November

An extraordinary evening of dance theatre of the highest quality, Figures in Extinction for Nederlands Dans Theater 1 is a thought provoking experience worth repeating.

*****

Figures in Extinction: a thrilling evening with NDT 1

Kathy Elgin, 22nd August

An evening focused on the separation of humanity from the natural world and the destruction of that world, either because of ignorance, greed or just not caring.

*****

McBurney's delightfully batty Magic Flute returns to the Coliseum

Susannah Moody, 28th February

English National Opera brings back Simon McBurney's theatre of wonders for this Mozart classic.

****1

McBurney's Magic Flute makes a triumphant return to DNO

Clare Varney, 1st December

After its Met Opera debut earlier in the year, Simon McBurney's popular staging returns to Amsterdam.

*****

Musically peerless but battering: Wozzeck in Aix

David Karlin, 7th July

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO give an orchestral performance to remember, with a fine singing cast, but Simon McBurney's staging dials the bleakness to maximum too early.

***11

Simon McBurney’s richly inventive Zauberflöte arrives at the Met

Susan Stempleski, 22nd May

With a stellar cast and fine orchestral playing, Mozart’s enigmatic fairy tale takes on a darker, more grown-up tone in its first new Metropolitan Opera staging in 19 years.

*****

More reviews...

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

McBurney paints The Rake's Progress onto a blank canvas in Aix