The season's last opera, The Rake's Progress by Igor Stravinski (1951), doesn't much inspire me to write. Basically the production was entertaining and the music was OK, but the first and second act had me nodding. The intermission was in the middle of the second act, and I bought myself a cup of tea with a cold-smoked salmon savoury to keep me awake.

The costumes were by Erika Turunen, as could be guessed by the heavy rock (Nick Shadow) and burlesque (brothel) styles even without checking the programme. I don't quite know who to "thank" for the garden gnomes in the madhouse, the director Dmitri Bertman? They were amusing, but what was the point? The conductor was Eivind Gullberg Jensen, who entertained the audience by pretending to phone his old teacher, Jorma Panula, before the moral at the end. Päivi Nisula as Baba the Turk was the high point of the opera for me, and obviously Nick Shadow (Jaakko Kortekangas) was the most interesting figure.

As a whole, it would be interesting to see another production of the opera for comparison, but I don't think The Rake's Progress will become my all time favourite.