The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and several young Chinese singers collaborated to put Igor Stravinsky's classic opera on stage during the ongoing Beijing Music Festival.

A still of The Rake's Progress, staged by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in early October 2021. [Photo by Wang Chun]

"The Rake's Progress is another powerful show by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra following Semele, Salome and Written on Skin," said Zhou Ping, director of the orchestra. She said she hoped audiences would feel the unique artistic expression of the young generation of Chinese musicians and their modern interpretation of this classic opera.

A still of The Rake's Progress, staged by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in early October 2021. [Photo by Wang Chun]

In addition to young director Zou Shuang, who also serves as the festival's artistic director, the opera hired a young cast of singers including a junior-year college student. This arrangement echoes the world premiere of The Rake's Progress decades ago, when Stravinsky relied on fresh young faces.

A still of The Rake's Progress, staged by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in early October 2021. [Photo by Wang Chun]

Written over a period of three years some seven decades ago, The Rake's Progress is based on a series of eight engravings of the same name by painter William Hogarth, dating back to 1732-1733.

They tell the story of the rise and fall of Tom Rakewell, son of a rich merchant, whose womanizing, drinking, and gambling across 18th-century London led to his incarceration at Bedlam, the infamous lunatic asylum.

A still of The Rake's Progress, staged by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in early October 2021. [Photo by Wang Chun]

As a co-production by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Beijing Music Festival, The Rake's Progress premiered in Shanghai before touring the Chinese capital.

A still of The Rake's Progress, staged by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in early October 2021. [Photo by Wang Chun]