Deborah York     Anne Trulove
Ian Bostridge    Tom Rakewell
Bryn Terfel      Nick Shadow
Anne Sofie von Otter
                 Baba the Turk
Peter Bronder    Sellem
Anne Howells     Mother Goose
Martin Robson    Trulove
Julian Clarkson  Keeper of the Madhouse

John Eliot Gardiner
                 Conductor

London Symphony Orchestra
Monteverdi Choir

I think this performance must be a stop on a pre-recording tour, similar to
the one Gardiner did with Leonora last year. It was "semi-staged", with
some token costumes over white tie and the platform rearranged to allow
some action.

I'm not sure that I've really got to grips with the Rake's Progress, which
I didn't know at all before. It's an odd but rich mixture of Festival of
Britain "heritage" libretto with Marxist overtones and musical reinvention.
It strikes me as something between a literary and musical hall of mirrors
like Der Rosenkavalier and a humanist morality something like Der
Silbersee, or a gentler Mahagonny. I found some of the music very
beautiful, like reinvented Mozart. But it all seemed a bit cerebral and
pious, lacking the anger and disgust of the Hogarth pictures (which, as the
programme points out, are less than half a mile away from the Barbican, in
Sir John Soane's house on Lincolns Inn Fields.)

Maybe it was something to do with Ian Bostridge as Tom. He has plenty of
voice, in spite of his fragile appearance, but he didn't really have the
requisite laddishness. He only really fit the part in the madhouse scene,
which was very moving, though I'd guess that mad Tom is meant to be a more
priapic Adonis.

Bryn Terfel, on the other hand, is a natural born devil, as well as a prime
Leporello. Sophie von Otter was very funny as Baba the Turk, as were Peter
Bronder as Sellem and Anne Howells as Mother Goose. Deborah York was a bit
insubstantial as Ann, and Martin Robson was far too young for Trulove --
solid enough but not particular loud or authoritative.

I'm not sure that I'd buy the recording, though I think I'd like to hear
the work again. A bit of theatrical direction obviously contributes to any
opera recording. But I think a I most enjoyed about this performance was
the theatrical characterization of von Otter, Bronder and Howells, not all
of which will make it into a sound recording.

BTW, I can't see any problem with having a counter-tenor as Baba. The whole
point of Tom marrying Baba is that it's a completely outrageous thing to
do. Shades of Some like it hot.