Devilishly good fun: The Rake's Progress

By Benjamin Poore, 18 November 2017

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“Jonathan Lemalu's Nick Shadow ran the risk of stealing not only Tom’s soul but the whole show”

Reviewed at Wilton's Music Hall, London on 17 November 2017

Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress

OperaGlass Works

Laurence Cummings, Conductor

Selina Cadell, Director

Tom Piper, Set Designer

Rosalind Ebbutt, Costume Designer

Robert Murray, Tom Rakewell

Susanna Hurrell, Anne Trulove

Jonathan Lemalu, Nick Shadow

Victoria Simmonds, Baba the Turk

Harry Nicoll, Sellem

Penelope Cousland, Mother Goose

Stephen Richardson, Trulove

Southbank Sinfonia

Singers from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

At Wilton’s Music Hall, a ghost light for Britten’s ghost story

Mark Pullinger, 26th January

When the pandemic struck and theatres were locked down, OperaGlass Works' staging of The Turn of the Screw was an early casualty. Creative thinking turned the production into a film, with London's oldest music hall the set.

****1

At Wilton’s Music Hall, a ghost light for Britten’s ghost story

Mark Pullinger, 26th January

****1

Dazzling coloratura delights in Handel's Arianna in Creta

Aksel Tollåli, 4th March

Despite a disappointingly static production, the cast shine in the Royal College of Music's producion of Handel's rarity Arianna in Creta.

***11

A sorta fairy tale: Sleepers Awake premieres at Opera Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 22nd April

A new opera by Gregory Spears subverts the Sleeping Beauty trope, with middling results.

**111

Asmik Grigorian strengthens the Met’s revival of Eugene Onegin

Susan Stempleski, 20th April

The Lithuanian soprano’s riveting performance as the central character in Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece lights up Deborah Warner’s mostly bland production.

****1

At half mast: Simon Boccanegra revived in Vienna

Orsolya Gyárfás, 19th April

Marco Armiliato's conducting thrills and Federica Lombardi's radiant Amelia stands out in the Wiener Staatsoper's latest revival of Simon Boccanegra.

***11

More reviews...

Benjamin Poore

Benjamin Poore is a writer and critic. His book on psychoanalysis and literature is forthcoming in 2019. He has previously written about literature and culture for the Independent, the Times Literary Supplement, and Times Higher Education. In his spare time he tries to sing Schubert; he has a very patient teacher.

Devilishly good fun at OperaGlass Works' The Rake's Progress