A pact with the devil is never going to go well – except when it’s an opera sung this passionately with music this powerful and an orchestra this uplifting. For English Touring Opera’s second night at Cambridge Arts Theatre, again singing in English, the libretto, also in English, had much poetry and wit – unlike the prosaic translation from the Italian of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut the night before.
Accordingly, the enthusiastic applause from a smaller audience than the almost sold out Puccini was much louder and enthusiastic than the polite ripple for the Manon – which had left a lot of the audience puzzled.
The Rake’s Progress, like the Manon, was played and sung with verve and gusto and massive talent but this time the staging and the costumes helped create the atmosphere rather than being a distraction from it.
The opening rural scene was dominated by a colourful maypole with the cast wearing wreaths of flowers, flowing outfits of grasses and horned animal heads. I
t is the May festival and Tom Rakewell, superbly sung by tenor Frederick Jones, and his adoring Anne Truelove, sung beautifully by soprano Nazan Fikret are in love.
Winter is gone and the sun shines on the world, but to the consternation of Anne’s father, sung with great authority by bass Trevor Eliot Bowes, Tom refuses to get a proper job and instead wants to follow his fortune and see what happens.
Ah but the Devil finds work for idle hands to do and here he comes. Nick Shadow is played so convincingly by magnificent baritone Jerome Knox that anyone might fall for him.
He offers attractive propositions.
He will work for Tom for a year and a day without pay. Then he says he will settle for whatever Tom thinks he is worth.
So off they go to that evil city London where every kind of debauchery is enjoyed, including the facility of a madame, Mother Goose, (majestic Amy J Payne) and an absurd marriage to Baba, the Bearded Lady, (tour de force Lauren Young). At first Tom says no – but as I said, Nick Shadow can talk anyone into anything.
The devoted Anne Truelove, true to her name, does rescue the brought down and broken Tom in the end but it’s too late, it’s difficult to beat the Devil. In this case, he is literally holding all the cards.
This is an expertly crafted, beautifully orchestrated and wonderfully sung night at the opera with everything (including the set and costumes) as it were, in tune.
It flows along and delighted those of us privileged to see it.
Directed by Polly Graham, artistic director of Loughborough Festival Opera, The Rake’s Progress is at Cambridge Arts Theatre again on Saturday, May 4.
