Michael Gielen, Royal Swedish Orchestra
(Recorded 7th May, 1961, Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm)
Father Trulove - Arne Tyrén
Anne Trulove - Margareta Hallin
Tom Rakewell - Ragnar Ulfung
Nick Shadow - Erik Saedén
Mother Goose - Kjerstin Dellert
Baba the Turk - Kerstin Meyer
Sellem - Olle Sivall
Madhouse Keeper - Erik Sundquist
The production was by Ingmar Bergman. The stage designs were by Birger Bergling. The costumes were by Kerstin Hedeby. The Swedish translation was by Östen Sjöstrand. The opera was divided into two acts instead of three.
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Later that year, Stravinsky himself attended a performance. His assistant Robert Craft described the occasion in his diary:
"As we enter ... I.S. receives a prolonged standing ovation. The stage apron has been extended over the orchestra pit, neutralizing the proscenium arch. Moreover, the deepest stage depth is exploited throughout, most effectively at the end of the brothel scene, where the actors freeze in silhouette in the far background. A Brechtian poster, "Rucklarens väg", is used as a between-scenes drop, replacing the curtain and emphasizing the episodes as a progress of pictures in Hogarth's sense. The groupings are Hogarthian, too, and in some of the pictorializations ... Hogarth is openly imitated, most effectively in the scene where Mother Goose, bottle in hand, falls backward on her couch, a veritable "tableau vivant" of the original. The sets are changed not in the dark but before the eyes of the audience and as a coordinated element in the movement of the play. Thus "London" is lowered from the sky and populated with tradesmen and townspeople during the trumpet solo introducing the street scene. This is the most attractive set but it is also the last that can be described as English in color and style of decor. After it, the costumes become more Swedish, gray and black gradually predominating over pink and orange, but this more muted and somber palette also follows the tenor of the play.
In spite of egregious musical cuts, wrong tempi, and a few places where Bergman is at loggerheads with the book, I.S. is more moved than I have ever seen him by any performance of any of his theater works ... "Tom's decision to marry Baba is convincing", he says, "and I want to thank Bergman for that. And for so much more besides. When Tom leaves for London, Anne weeps, Tom starts to go to her, and Trulove motions him back and goes to her himself: I believed in Trulove's gesture. Another thing: in the auction scene, the singing of Tom and Shadow from different places in the audience does bolster the idea that they are "at large". These small points, and many more, help to establish the credibility of the play". Best of all, Bergman's groupings are "natural" without infracting the conventions of opera: the arias and the actionless ensembles ... are sung to the audience, stage front. The difference is that Bergman's singers act, move their bodies and use their eyes, as singers are rarely trained to do.
At the end of the opera, I.S. receives a long standing ovation. I am bursting with pride for him myself and thinking of all those terrible performances of the opera in Geneva, New York, etc."
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0:00:00 - Announcement
0:04:00 - Act 1: Prelude
0:04:42 - Act 1: "The woods are green"
0:09:40 - Act 1: "Here I stand"
0:12:25 - Act 1: "Tom Rakewell?"
0:20:08 - Act 1: "Farewell for now"
0:25:11 - Act 1: "With air commanding and weapon handy"
0:26:30 - Act 1: "Come, Tom"
0:31:40 - Act 1: "Love, too frequently betrayed"
0:35:36 - Act 1: "The sun is bright, the grass is green"
0:38:17 - Act 1: "No word from Tom"
0:43:48 - Act 1: "I go, I go to him"
0:46:50 - Act 1: "Vary the song, O London, change!"
0:52:46 - Act 1: "Master, are you alone?"
0:57:17 - Act 1: "My tale shall be told"
0:59:38 - Act 1: "How strange!"
1:05:21 - Act 1: "Anne! Here!"
1:08:41 - Act 1: "Could it then have been known"
1:15:02 - Announcement
1:18:12 - Act 2: "As I was saying"
1:24:19 - Act 2: "Oh Nick, I've had the strangest dream"
1:30:14 - Act 2: "Ruin! Disaster! Shame!"
1:32:54 - Act 2: "Aha!"..."He's here! The auctioneer!"
1:38:15 - Act 2: "Sold! Annoyed!"
1:44:31 - Act 2: "I go to him"
1:47:00 - Act 2: Prelude to the Graveyard Scene
1:49:29 - Act 2: "How dark and dreadful is this place"
1:54:00 - Act 2: "Very well then, my dear and good Tom"
2:03:13 - Act 2: "I burn! I burn! I freeze!"
2:06:54 - Act 2: "Prepare yourselves, heroic shades"
2:09:59 - Act 2: "There he is. Have no fear"
2:12:22 - Act 2: "In a foolish dream"
2:16:13 - Act 2: "Gently, little boat"
2:22:25 - Act 2: "Where art thou, Venus?"
2:27:50 - Epilogue: "Good people, just a moment"
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"The Rake's Progress" is an opera in three acts by Igor Stravinsky, with an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman. The libretto is based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth. It was first performed at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 11th September, 1951, with the composer conducting.