Rake No. 2 at Wolf Trap

Charles T. Downey, ‘Rake’s Progress’ at Wolf Trap highlights vocal talent
Washington Post, August 6, 2012

Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress, M. Persson, T. Lehtipuu, M. Rose, E. Manistina, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, V. Jurowski (released on January 31, 2012) Opus Arte OA 1062 D | 140' [Review]

Are Stravinsky’s 20th-century masterpiece “The Rake’s Progress” and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” opposite sides of the same coin? That seemed to be the point of Wolf Trap Opera’s pairing of the two operas this summer, both named for self-centered men who leave spurned women in their wake, with the help of servants who take part in their sins. Both men are punished with no hope of escape, abandoned even by the women who tried to deter them from the wrong path.

The summer’s best vocal talent was saved for this welcome production of “The Rake’s Progress,” on Friday night at the Barns. ­Texas-born tenor Eric Barry excelled in the demanding role of Tom Rakewell, in one of the most promising performances by a Wolf Trap young artist in recent memory. Lustrous, puissant high notes never faltered or strained, with clean accuracy of intonation and rhythm, spinning out the baroquified curlicues of Stravinsky’s vocal writing. The Anne Trulove of Corinne Winters, from Frederick, was no less striking, a winsome soprano of rounded richness, with just the right air of angelic innocence. [Continue reading]

Stravinsky, The Rake's Progress
Libretto (.PDF file) by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman
Wolf Trap Opera
Barns at Wolf Trap