Breaking hearts

The Rake’s Progress, Royal College of Music; The Turn of the Screw, English National Opera

The Royal College of Music’s Britten Theatre is the ideal size for Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, indeed the ideal size for almost every opera I can think of until the first third of the 19th century. What must make it appealing for young singers is that they can sing without straining, that every word can be heard, and that their expressions are visible to everyone in the audience — but of course that deprives them of excuses, too. Not that there was much need of excuses for the second cast of the Rake. First, I must say that the stage designs by Soutra Gilmour and the direction of Tim Carroll were quite brilliant, ranking with Hockney’s long-lasting Inszenierung at Glyndebourne, and clearly influenced by it without deriving from it.