Between them Stravinsky and librettists WH Auden and Chester Kallman transform William Hogarth's Rake's Progress from a mere morality tale - the story of the irresponsible antics and resulting nervous collapse of young cad Tom Rakewell - into a more Faustian tale. In part this is because of the addition, supplementary to Hogarth's characters, of sinister 'Nick Shadow'. Robert Lepage's production, revived by Sybille Wilson, locates the opera in its time and place of composition - 1940s Los Angeles - rather than Georgian London, reinventing it as an allegory for the corrupt and unfulfilling debauchery Stravinsky observed in Hollywood society.
      At the beginning one sees Tom sharing a moment of pre-marital bliss with his inamorata Ann Trulove, rolling around against a backdrop of Texan oil fields. Her father emerges with talk of a job possibility, but Tom declines, heralding the arrival of Nick Shadow who claims that the former is in fact the lucky heir to a great fortune. This moment, it emerges, is the beginning of the end; the two men leave for the lights and dazzle of the big city. Clad in black leather and sometimes a dirty mac, Kyle Ketelsen is dramatically and vocally impressive in his demonic portrayal of Shadow.
      The 'progress of the rake' now begins in earnest, starting with a visit to Mother Goose's brothels. Lepage uses it to satirise the vulgarities of the film industry: the chorus consists of a gaggle of desperate floozies, all dressed in shiny pink frocks and clawing at Rakewell, while Nick Shadow swings around with a camera set above them. As a counterpoint to the tumult tenor Toby Spence delivers a beautiful rendition of 'Love, too frequently betrayed'. But hardly has he finished when he is swamped in red velvet and falls prey to the brothel's big mamma, who crushes him with her curves and lace frills, until they are both swallowed completely and plummet through a trap in the stage floor.
      The rest of the opera follows suit, staging decadence to almost pantomime effect. One of its strongest and most magical points is the auction scene which takes place around the swimming pool of Rakewell's grand home. Baba the Turk - whom the rake has recently married at the behest of Nick Shadow (and to the disappointment of Anna), and whom he has subsequently tried to drown - is fished from the pool and nearly sold at auction herself before suddenly breaking into song. Patricia Bardon performs this role with bravura, rendering the character at once comic and statuesque - if rather ridiculous.
      As time passes Shadow grows impatient with Rakewell's downward progress. Finally, in his true capacity as the Devil, he claims his wages - not money but Tom's soul. A card game of chance is played against the magnificent backdrop of a run down fairground. Shadow tries to cheat, but the memory of Anne brings Tom good luck and he wins. Shadow is enraged, and before falling into his grave he curses Tom Rakewell, condemning him to perpetual insanity. The parallels drawn between the dark side of Georgian London and the themes of corruption by money and celebrity in twentieth century LA are absorbing. Lepage uses his choice of timeframe to refer to the modern inventions of Stravinsky's day - for instance, Shadow's infamous stone-to-bread device doubles up first as a microwave and then as a television. But none of this detracts from the music, nor the fine performance of it under Ingo Metzmacher's baton.
      The Rake's Progress has been described as a neoclassical work because of its 'borrowings' from the eighteenth century's musical language. But although it is rich with such references it resists classification, and Stravinsky himself resisted the attribution. He uses recitative techniques of Mozart's time - some accompanied by the orchestra, some with solo harpsichord - and makes specific allusions to Cosi fanTutte, with hints of Don Giovanni. There are also Monteverdian aspects to the Prelude. But in spite of all the influences on Stravinsky's inspiration, the music is very much his own, with its trademark off-rhythms. To the question whether The Rake's Progress is a pastiche, his own words give the response - "I ask the listener to suspend the question and to try to discover the opera's own qualities" - and of these there are many, finely highlighted in this production.
Florence Mackenzie