My Debut as Nick Shadow in The Rake´s Progress

At the height of his art, Stravinsky reconciles with The Rake’s Progress [La Carrière du libertin] tradition and modernity. Tradition in form and in neoclassical writing reminiscent of Mozart’s greatest operas; modernity in this ability to reinvent the lyrical model, give it a dazzling new youthfulness and approach the consumer society with distance and derision.

The director Mathieu Bauer signs his first opera here and situates this plot in the carefree 1950s, jubilantly characterizing each of the characters: Tom Rakewell, anti-hero who squanders an unexpected legacy in gambling and brothels; Anne Trulove who is looking for true love; Nick Shadow, the Tempting Devil; Turkish Baba, the bearded lady… To sublimate this art of contrasts, Grant Llewellyn conducts his Orchester National de Bretagne and the chamber choir Mélisme(s), as well as a cast of soloists who are all Mozartians at heart.