A Harlot's Progress at Theater an der Wien - an opera not to be missed!

Being a great admire of contemporary opera and music in general, I simply could not miss a brand new opera project at Theater an der Wien. The world premiere of Iain Bell and Peter Ackroyd's Harlot's Progress proves to be one of the most promising new works of the 21st century.

The opera is based on William Hogarth’s series of six paintings. English artist tried to capture the story of a young woman, Moll Hackabout, who arrives in London and becomes a prostitute, struggles in life with various men, falls in love with a member of a robbery clan James Dalton and dies of syphilis at 23.

Ian Bell's opera is about so much more than just one girl with unfortunate destiny. It's about the society and its problem, talks about the past issues that have somehow become the issues of our time - hate, helplessness, ignorance and malice.

Diana Damrau as Moll Hackabout (copyright Werner Kmetitsch)

Theater An Der Wien is a wonderful company with such great history. Through the years many interesting operas and different projects have been produced here. A Harlot's Progress is no exception. The production by Jens-Daniel Herzog is really vivid and yet very simple. Great singing by Tara Erraught and Nathan Gunn is only topped by the brilliant Diana Damrau who is really the star of the whole production. She steals the show with her emotional final dying scene!

 

Diana Damrau and Nathan Gunn (copyright Werner Kmetitsch)

 Diana Damrau and Tara Erraught (copyright Werner Kmetitsch)

Don't forget to watch Livestream of A Harlot's Progress tonight at 7 pm. You are going to be amazed and surprised at the same time! More info on Theater An Der Wien link.
Enjoy!