Opera di Roma: The Rake's Progress

Opera in three acts and an epilogue (1951) New Production! Acclaimed director Rafael R. Villalobos and conductor Michele Mariotti bring Stravinsky’s darkly comic opera to Rome for its first new staging in almost sixty years, with a distinguished cast. Bored Tom Rakewell (Lawrence Brownlee) abandons his devoted Anne Trulove (Rosalia Cid) after the enigmatic Nick Shadow (Alex Esposito) promises him a life of pleasure in London. As this shadowy figure leads him from fortune and fame to a grotesque marriage of convenience with Baba the Turk (Daniela Barcellona), Tom hurtles through surreal misadventures, his soul hanging in the balance. Stravinsky’s neoclassical fable, set to a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, traces the rake’s fall into moral ruin with wit and lyrical poise, ending in a shattering final reckoning.