David McVicar Presents THE RAKE'S PROGRESS for Scottish Opera, 17-31 March

Opera director David McVicar will return home to Scottish Opera for his first ever staging of Stravinsky's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS, which will play at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow on March 17-25 and at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh on March 27-31.

McVicar's particular brand of truthful storytelling will put human frailty at the heart of the of Stravinsky's 1950s pastiche of 18th Century opera, which has not been performed by Scottish Opera for 40 years.

The Rake's Progress follows Tom Rakewell as he makes a Faustian pact and leaves a quiet life with his sweetheart Anne Trulove to seek his fortune in the big city. Accompanied by the mysterious Nick Shadow and a colourful cast of characters, Tom is drawn, along with the audience, into a seedy new world that takes him from the gaudy debauchery of Mother Goose's brothel to the bare despair of bedlam. Struggling with his own morality, Tom realises his very soul is at stake.

Presiding over Stravinsky's stylish and evocative score is conductor Siân Edwards, who began her professional conducting career with Scottish Opera's The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in 1986.

Design will be by John MacFarlane, lighting by David Finn and choreography by Andrew George.

Hand-picked by the director to sing the role of Tom Rakewell is Lithuanian tenor Edgaras Montvidas, last seen by Scottish Opera audiences as the Duke in 2011's Rigoletto. Steven Page takes on the role of Nick Shadow fresh from successes in Damon Albarn's Doctor Dee and ENO's A Dog's Heart. Soprano Carolyn Sampson makes her Scottish Opera debut as Anne Trulove while Scottish Opera favourite Leah-Marian Jones sings Baba the Turk and Graeme Broadbent returns after a scene-stealing turn in The Barber of Seville in 2011, as Trulove. The Robertson Scholarship Trust Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Ross McInroy completes the cast as Keeper of the Madhouse.

More information and tickets: www.scottishopera.org.uk

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