The Rake's Progress - TNT

I'm a huge fan of the multi-talented French Canadian director Robert Lepage, but (as with his muddy production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the National several years back) his brilliant creativity seems constrained whenit comes to working within the confines imposed by someone else's structure.
Based on Hogarth's series of paintings depicting the downfall of a weak-willed hedonist, Stravinsky's 1951 opera boasts a libretto co-written by the poet W.A. Auden and his lover Chester Kallman. Lepage has abandonedthe original 18th century setting and turned Tom Rakewell into a good-for-nothing spendthrift from Texas. Tempted by Nick Shadow (who emerges, slicked with oil, from his subterranean lair) Rakewell deserts the girl he supposedly loves for the glitzy fame and surface glitter that Tinseltown has to offer.
From brothel, to marriage to a bearded (and very hairy-legged) lady, to ruin and insanity, Rakewell's fate is shown (somewhat statically) on sets inspired by scenes from such mid-20th century movies as Sunset Boulevard and Giant. There are glimpses of Lepage's visual flair and imagination at work, but too often the results are disappointingly disjointed. Still, bass-baritone John Relyea makes a devilishly demonic Shadow, and (with Thomas Ades conducting) soprano Sally Matthews' rejected Anne is deeply moving as she sets out in search of her worthless beloved.
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, WC2 (020-7304 4000). In rep until July 18. Tickets £139- £6