Rake’s Progress Blends the Beautiful with the Ugly
by Faith Richards

Although Stravinsky is probably best known for his ballet scores, the reception on opening night of Oberlin’s production of his opera, The Rake’s Progress, left nothing to be desired. The opera’s combination of the comic and the grotesque, the beautiful and the disturbing, struck the audience deeply and left them with an impression not easily forgotten.
The plot of the opera is a 20th century version of the classic Faust story with a slight twist. In the traditional story, Faust knows that he sells his soul to the devil to buy a life of eternal pleasures.
In The Rake’s Progress, Tom Rakewell is unaware of the true nature of the mysterious stranger who makes him rich and ultimately destroys him. The chilling moral of the opera is that the Devil always finds work for those with idle hands and that not everyone is as lucky as Tom, who is eventually saved by his true love, Anne. There is a rich combination of tragedy and comedy within the body of the work that held the audience spellbound. The characters are lively and almost exaggerated in their feelings and mistakes; they are true members of the opera world.
Among the most noteworthy singers in the production were senior Scott Skiba (Nick Shadow), junior Melanie Besner (Baba the Turk), and senior Scott Mello (Tom Rakewell).
Skiba managed to handle the difficult part of Nick Shadow with seeming ease, charming the audience from the start with his wit and charisma in the part and then destroying this image with the power and terror of his graveyard arias. He played both sides of the Devil’s character wonderfully to create a character that was horrifying yet still somehow a gentleman.

Besner also took her part to the limit as the show-stopping and extravagant Baba the Turk. Her beautiful soprano voice filled Hall Auditorium with its gorgeous tones and her presence on the stage was felt by all.
Perhaps the most commendable performance of the evening, however, was made by Mello as the main character, Tom Rakewell. In the space of a few hours he was the eager lover, the foolish rake, the disillusioned boy, the despairing sinner and the pitiful lunatic, portraying each role with conviction. All his various character moods were inspired and touching and he held the audience in his sway with the power of his voice, which easily handled every note of his parts.
Although the opera began somewhat shakily with the audience straining to catch the words over the sound of the orchestra, when the time came for junior Sarah Stankiewiez (Anne Trulove) to close the first act with her first aria, the cast was securely established in their roles and sounded confident and well-trained. The cast warmed up the second and third acts, which went without a hitch.
The opera required 10 scene changes in three acts: from the clock with its falling numbers, to the suspended windows of Tom’s home, to the grave dug by Nick Shadow, the set was a masterpiece.
Some of the most comic and tragic moods of the opera were captured by the 12 students in the chorus, who played everything from the whores in Mother Goose’s brothel to citizens of London, eager to buy Rakewell’s furniture, to wives, to the doctors in Bedlam (the town where Rakewell finally dies). The Rake’s Progress will be performed all weekend at Hall Auditorium. Friday and Saturday, March 16 and 17, performances will be given at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 18, a matinee performance will be given at 2 p.m.

March 15
April 5

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