Stravinsky Rake's Progress

It's on at ROH ! But there's one I made earlier, Glyndebourne 1975.

http://www.operatoday.com/content/2005/11/stravinsky_the.php

As different a production as you can imagine !

This production connects to the original Hogarth etchings Stravinsky saw in Chicago in 1947. Designed by David Hockney, this one leaps in and out of one dimensional space. First we see a stage in simple black and white, like the engravings, crudely etched in lines and cross hatching. Perspectives aren’t quite right, as in the originals. Then figures appear, their costumes reflecting the graphics. Film technology being what it is, lines flicker as the eye adjusts. Unintentionally, this serves only to underline the surreal effect of old film and old print. The further the narrative descends into inner madness, the more striking Hockney’s designs. In the auction scene the characters are shown in muted neutrals, wigs and clothes like paper cartoons. Only the auctioneer is fully coloured, for his is the role of observer. Even more striking is the remarkable staging of the madhouse scene. The asylum’s inhabitants pop in and out of boxes, like typepieces in typographers’ trays. Boundaries between real and surreal are overturned, just as the music subverts its formal constraints. Remarkably, this staging makes the voices in the chorus surprisingly human and personal, adding another element of insight.