Forged by the Hall

The Rake’s Progress

John Cox, (1955, English), born 1935, alumnus and Honorary Fellow, recently revived his much-loved 1975 production of the opera ‘The Rake’s Progress’ featuring artist David Hockney’s famous designs.

in 1957 with Upon the King, making a viable one act play from the night scene before Agincourt in Henry V. This featured Patrick Garland in the title role and led to OUDS selecting the whole play for its next summer major. The Hall had five actors in major roles, a record for any college, doing something to soften its reputation as “all for sport”.

However, it was for the OU Opera Club at the Town Hall that John did his most noteworthy work, staging Verdi’s Ernani in 1958 and, the following year, the British premieres of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. So, in a very real sense, his opera career began here at Oxford.

In 1959, Teddy Hall alumnus and Honorary Fellow, John Cox left Oxford and began his professional career as an assistant stage director at Glyndebourne, the summer opera festival. For the next ten years he freelanced in opera, plays and tv before becoming Director of Productions at Glyndebourne, a position which he held for the next decade. During John’s time there he directed six romantic comedies by Richard Strauss as well as operas by Mozart, Rossini, Haydn and others. His interpretation of Capriccio, Strauss’ last opera, has since been seen worldwide in collaboration with different leading designers and sopranos.

Most pertinently, he also directed Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in 1975, conducted by Bernard Haitink and designed by David Hockney, which continues to be performed in opera houses across the globe and is due for another revival at Glyndebourne next summer.

From 1981-86, John was steering Scottish Opera through some existential rough water, but its work managed to include the British premiere of Alban Berg’s completed Lulu and a production of Weber’s rarely performed Oberon, for which he commissioned a completely new libretto by novelist Anthony Burgess, himself also a composer, which was given a masterful production by Graham Vick, who by this time, John had appointed Director of Productions. From 1988-94, John was Principal Stage Director at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, working on several pieces, including Die Fledermaus in a new English translation by John Mortimer. As a freelance, John has been active worldwide in houses as large as La Scala, Milan, and the New York Metropolitan and as small as Monte Carlo and Drottningholm, Sweden; in places as unlikely as Tehran and Honolulu; in standard repertoire— Verdi’s La Traviata in Salzburg and in rarities—Pizetti’s Murder in the Cathedral in Turin, Barber’s Vanessa in Strasbourg and Los Angeles.

He had a long running and happy relationship with Opera Australia at the awe-inspiring Sydney Opera House and he also did a number of productions for the Santa Fe Opera, New Mexico. Shortly before retiring, John developed a fruitful and happy relationship with Garsington Opera where distinguished productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Fidelio were crowned by last summer’s Così fan tutte, an opera which John says has continued to delight and perplex him throughout his career.

Last October 2021, in advance of the next festival season, Glyndebourne presented the celebrated and longlived The Rake’s Progress with its touring company. It had not been seen at its home base for 10 years. The Arts Desk called it “a feast for the eye as well as ear, heart as well as mind.” “If any opera production stays in the repertoire for 46 years”, wrote Geoff Brown in The Times “and shows every sign of delighting audiences for at least another 50, then it must have very special qualities.”

Whilst at the Hall, John was very active with the John Oldham Society, notably with a production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, starring Patrick Garland as Oswald. The Hall won OUDS (Oxford University Dramatic Society) cuppers

The drop curtain for ‘The Rake’s Progress’ in 2021 (Credit: Richard Hubert Smith / Glyndebourne Productions Ltd).