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| Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – Adam Temple-Smith, Michael Mofidian – The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller) |
Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress; Adam Temple-Smith, Alexandra Oomens, Michael Mofidian, Rosie Aldridge, director: Antony McDonald, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Tom Primrose; The Grange Festival
23 June 2024
A combination of moral directness and engagingly youthful character gave this performance of Stravinsky’s opera a particular charm
After English Touring Opera’s recent eclectic production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress [see my review], I found myself in a lively discussion with friends over the importance of an 18th-century frame of reference for the opera; Stravinsky’s music, though eclectic in its sources, includes an element of 18th-century classical style to it, so does this mean that we need to reference this in the visuals?
Acting both as designer and director, Antony McDonald seems to have answered a resounding ‘Yes’ to this question in his new production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress which opened at The Grange Festival on Sunday 23 June 2024. Tom Primrose (the festival’s former chorus master) conducted the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Adam Temple-Smith as Tom, Alexandra Oomens as Anne, Michael Mofidian as Nick, Rosie Aldridge as Baba, Darren Jeffery as Father Trulove, John Graham-Hall as Sellem, Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Mother Goose and Armand Rabot as the Keeper of the Madhouse. Lighting was by Peter Mumford and movement by Lucy Burge.
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| Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – Alexandra Oomens – The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller) |
McDonald’s costumes were firmly 18th century and that was the visual frame of reference for the sets, yet there was a pared-back elegance to the designs. Everything took place in a fixed box with tiled walls that we came to understand was going to be the set for the madhouse. Each scene had enough elements to develop character but not overwhelm. The first scene revealed Adam Temple-Smith and Alexandra Oomens sitting under a (painted) tree that evoked a Gainsborough portrait, yet with flying cattle. Mother Goose’s featured two geese on the walls and Last Supper-like table, whilst Tom’s residence had an elaborate bed and little else. The visuals were neither eclectic nor overwhelming, yet their expressive elegance told strongly. McDonald’s handling of the chorus was highly visual to , with their scenes arranged into strikingly effective, stylised tableaux.
This was a cast that mixed youth and experience, so that the younger characters were all played by youthful singers. Adam Temple-Smith as Tom and Alexandra Oomens as Anne both had the inexperience of youth, yet Temple-Smith’s Tom allowed himself to be led astray whilst Oomens’ Anne was made of sterner stuff. Even Michael Mofidian’s black-voice (and black-hearted) Nick, had wonderfully youthful vitality to him.
McDonald’s production took no liberties and told the story in a direct way, never telling us what to think but pointing the way via McDonald’s lively visual references. This combination of moral directness and engagingly youthful character gave the production its particular charm, but also brought about some remarkably moving scenes.
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| Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – Adam Temple-Smith, Rosie Aldridge- The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller) |
Adam Temple-Smith was no casual rake, there was naivety and neurosis in his portrayal, mining the anxiety that seems present in the text but a restlessness too. Temple-Smith sang with great sense of line and focused power, so that he rode the music’s climaxes easily and produced real power in the arias, yet there was a flexibility that spoke of youthful appeal. Overall, Temple-Smith’s Tom was engagingly gauche and in the final scenes, rather touching. This was a notable portrayal, Temple-Smith held our attention throughout and made us interested in Tom in a way that does not always happen in this opera.
As Anne, Alexandra Oomens radiated good humour and charm, yet as Anne was taxed by events, Oomens made her develop in underlying strength. Her aria concluding Act One had a lovely youthful fluidity to it alongside a firmness of purpose that developed remarkably in the subsequent acts. This Anne had a real sense of moral purpose, and her final scene to Temple-Smith’s Tom was profoundly moving in a way which we don’t quite expect from Stravinsky but which is essential if the opera is to make its mark.
From the word go, there was something about Michael Mofidian’s eyes which made you realise that this vividly portrayed, yet engagingly attractive Nick was up to no good. Though McDonald dressed the two similarly, there was little sense of them as companions, comrades in arms, instead they were two sides of a coin so in the first scenes Temple-Smith was all in very pale colours and Mofidian all in black. Mofidian made a vigorously vivid Nick, and one who was unashamed of his physical appeal and sexuality. Mofidian’s sudden appearance out of Tom’s bed at the opening of Act Two brought a frisson of the homo-erotic, but McDonald did not push this. Instead, Mofidian’s Nick became progressively darker and black-hearted until his thrilling final scene.
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| Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – Michael Mofidian – The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller) |
Rosie Aldridge made played Baba with wonderful aplomb, playing up the character’s drag-queen-like characteristics with her over-the-top manner and visual bravura, and she sang with tones to match. She made an extremely likeable Baba, and her final scene with Alexandra Oomens’ Anne was almost touching. Darren Jeffery made a bluff, likeable Father Trulove, a settled, secure person who helped anchor Anne.
Catherine Wynn-Rogers’ had a whale of a time as an extravagantly costumed Mother Goose who was firmly in charge of her riotous young men and women, and took Temple-Smith’s Tom to bed with vigour and relish. John Graham-Hall was delightful as Sellem, the auctioneer who loses complete control of the auction. Armand Rabot made a small but important contribution as the keeper of the madhouse.
The chorus was on strong form, both vocally and visually, giving us vigorous performances yet being visually simulating too. Highly active, combining music and movement, this was a vivid counterpart to soloists and orchestra.
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| Stravinsky: The Rake’s Progress – The Grange Festival (Photo: Craig Fuller) |
The cast’s diction was excellent, so that we hardly needed the surtitles. Part of the reason for this was also in the pit, where Tom Primrose and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra gave a disciplined account of the score, never overwhelming. Primrose kept things on a tight rein, yet it never felt constrained and this was one of those Rakes where the voices were able to bloom yet the full imagination of Stravinsky’s score, with its eclectic mix of influences, was able to register to the full, also.
My last few encounters with Stravinsky’s opera have been somewhat mixed, but this performance brought back that sense of engagement. The combination of visual clarity and expressivity with finely balanced and youthfully engaging performance, along with some superb discipline, gave us a terrific evening in the theatre, whilst at the same time we really came to care for these characters. Something that does not always happen in this opera.
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