Arthaus Stravinsky DVD
Igor STRAVINSKY
THE RAKE'S PROGRESS
From the Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1975
Opera in Three Acts; Sung in English
Leo Goeke, Felicity Lott, Samuel Ramey, Richard Van Allan, Rosalind Elias
The Glyndebourne Chorus, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

Stage Production: John Cox
Designer: David Hockney

Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Picture Format: 4:3
Menu / Subtitle Languages: GB, D, F, SP
Region Code: 0 worldwide
Running Time: 142 mins
DVD 9 / NTSC

Cat No.: 101 093

Stravinsky's name is added to the Glyndebourne series in August with this stellar performance of The Rake's Progress.

First performed in 1951 at the theatre La Fenice, Venice, the opera The Rake's Progress was given its first British performance by Glyndebourne Opera. This recording is the famous and striking 1975 John Cox production which has been described as a "brilliant stroke" (The Daily Telegraph) and as "a virtuoso piece of production and design".

The designer on the production was the British painter David Hockney, one of today's leading artists. His highly individual sets, based on the Hogarth's series of prints, reflect perfectly the "spikiness" of the music, combined with the underlying tenderness of the theme of true love.

"Hockney's approach, even while stealing prime attention, is well suited to the icy artificiality and mannered wit of the Auden-Kallman libretto and the emotional pendulum of Stravinsky's music; and it makes an ideal background for John Cox's barbed, scrupulously characterized and timed production which revels in the absurdities of the action, chills the marrow in the Churchyard scene, but does not deny Anne her sweetness, old Trulove his staid benevolence, or indeed Nick Shadow his attractive qualities" -- The Times