robert lepage - The Rake's Progress

I discovered some months ago Robert Lepage and from what I ‘ve seen I got interested in investigating more his work. He is very interested in the relation of theatre and cinema, as he works as well with both mediums. His theatre is very cinematic and he is working very much with the deconstruction of time and memory. I am currently reading “The cinema of Robert Lepage, The poetics of memory”.
Some weeks ago I went to see “The Rake’s Progress” at Royal Opera House. (I have to say thanks to Esteban that gave me the invitation!) This is an opera of Stravinsky that Lepage directed. I don’t know if it was one of the most characteristic works of him but it was the first play of him that I could see. (I have only watched some of his films)



Of course an opera is an opera and this was a classic story, light and amusing. The performance was a big production with a lot of technology involved. A series of cinematic and poetic images were created with the use of a huge screen as a background, the objects on the stage that played with scale and the use of light. The 3d objects on the stage interacted with the moving (or not) image behind to create a new 4 dimensional reality (as the projection even though it has two dimensions it represents three).



I found also very interesting some scenes that played with the scale of the objects and the depth of the stage. For example, when Anne was leaving her house, she was standing close to the edge of the stage and a small model of a house, lighted and looking real, was on the back of the stage, when a projected moon was moving on the background screen. This game with perspectives and realities gave a very beautiful result.
In general, I have to say that I enjoyed very much the show. All the scenography was very inspiring (even if I didn’t like everything aesthetically). Even if I am not a big fan of opera, I have to admit that seeing an opera directed from a new perspective and introducing cinema and multimedia in it, the result can be exceptional.