A Harlot's Progress by Bell, Iain, Thu 24 Oct 2013, From (2013/2013), Directed by Jens Daniel Herzog,, Conductor Mikko Franck, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

Over sixty years after the premiere of Stravinski's The Rake's Progress, the young English composer Iain Bell used William Hogarth's other famous series of engravings, A Harlot's Progress (1732), as a source of inspiration for his commissioned work for the Theater an der Wien. The libretto was created by the writer Peter Ackroyd, who is internationally known primarily for his historical novels and descriptions of English history. The work conjures up Hogarth's London, the bustling noise of the streets and markets, but also the dark places, the prison, cheap whores, illness and death. Young and naive looking for a better life, Moll Hackabout arrives in London. As soon as she got out of the carriage, she fell into the clutches of the matchmaker Needham. At first Moll is supported by a rich man, she lives in sinful luxury. But then she falls in love with the thief James Dalton. With him she sinks deeper and deeper, becomes a cheap whore and ends up in prison. She is allowed to leave prison because she has a child, but it is too late: Dalton is now dead and she is dying of syphilis in utter poverty. At their funeral service, the companions of their descent meet again and sum up - mostly cynically - Moll's fate. Old Needham wants to take care of Moll's daughter and educate her. Iain Bell is fascinated by the possibilities of the singing voice, so far he has mainly created song cycles, A Harlot's Progress is his first opera. With an orchestra of 60 musicians, a 40-piece choir and six soloists, the work deliberately follows on from the British operatic tradition of the 20th century. The choir provides in-depth commentary on the event as in the ancient Greek theater, orchestral interludes illustrate the non-scenic stages of the decline of the main character.