When Igor Stravinsky`s ”The Rake`s Progress” gets its local professional premiere in a new production this week at the University of Chicago`s Mandel Hall, audiences may do a double take when they see who is presenting it.
Stravinsky`s only full-length opera is being staged by The City Musick, an ensemble that until now has been identified mainly with period-instrument performances of 18th Century repertoire. Isn`t playing a modern opera on modern instruments a pretty daring departure for the group?
Not at all, insisted Elaine Scott Banks, City Musick`s energetic founder and artistic director.
”It is a very logical step for us,” the conductor said. ”Stravinsky`s use of recitatives, arias and harpsichord continuo really make the `Rake` an 18th Century opera in disguise. I think of this brilliant and clever work as a metaphor for City Musick, for all the things we can do and where we are going artistically.
”Switching from period to modern instruments was not a big adjustment problem for our musicians, because this is something they do routinely in the course of their professional lives. They find the score very exciting and challenging to play. So do I, because we have never done anything this big before.”
Stravinsky`s wry fable of love, madness and devilish retribution, set to a libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, has an important Chicago connection. The composer, visiting the Art Institute in 1947, came across an exhibition of satirical prints by 18th Century engraver and painter William Hogarth.
Although Stravinsky had toyed with the idea of composing an opera in English for nearly a decade, it was not until he saw the Hogarth series ”The Rake`s Progress” that he found his muse. Although the opera had its premiere in Venice in 1951 and its American premiere at the Met two years later, the only Chicago performances, in 1976, were by Lyric Opera School students.
Banks said she thought it important to hold off performing the ”Rake”
until her musicians had enough Bach, Handel and Mozart under their belts to provide the proper sphere of stylistic reference.
”I also wanted to get the right people together to make a first-class ensemble for this piece,” the conductor said. ”And I wanted the city to be ready for us to do it.
”Besides, I`m distressed with the pigeonholing aspect of the term
`period instrument.` If The City Musick plays Beethoven, it`s early music;
but if the Chicago Symphony plays it, it`s Beethoven. I want to break down that kind of quaint stereotyping.
”A lot of period-instrument orchestras seem to push the idea that you must have a Ph.D to enjoy Mozart, Beethoven, Lully or Schubert played in a historically informed way. That elitism is one of the things that`s wrong with the period-instruments movement. You don`t have to be a snob to understand early music; you just have to go and listen.”
Banks has assembled a promising cast for ”Rake`s Progress.” Robert Tate will sing the role of the hapless Tom Rakewell, with Alexandra Coku as his sweetheart, Anne Trulove, and Daryl Henriksen as his nemesis, Nick Shadow. Jocelyn Wilkes takes the role of Baba the Turk.
Thanks to support from a few generous friends, Banks was able to bring the show in for a relatively modest $150,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers and Salvage One donated the props and materials for designer Rusty Smith`s unit set, a striking construction of more than 50 large antique picture frames, scaffolding and scrims. The Chicago Park District supplied rehearsal space at the South Shore Cultural Center in Hyde Park.
”I think that operas of this type have to be done in the right context,” Banks said. ”This is an acting opera; people just can`t stand up there like singing tree stumps. Sometimes I think that when grand opera is presented in huge halls, nothing subtle can happen, because you have to run across the stage just for someone to see you. That`s why we are happy to have Mandel; it`s just the right size for this work.
”Our cast is wonderful, a great assemblage of people. The chorus-our regular choir of 20 singers-is doing great. Michael McConnell, artistic director of the Cleveland Lyric Opera, is directing, and Rusty Smith has done the costumes.
”I want people to come to see `Rake`s Progress` because I think it`s going to be spectacular. They won`t be bored, and they`ll be provoked. A lot of people don`t even know that Stravinsky wrote an opera, let alone something as marvelous as this. I would like for people to come to hear us not because we do something quaint and arcane, but because whatever we do, we do it well.”
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and at 3:30 p.m. March 25. Tickets are $20 to $36; call 489-2100.
