The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season has officially reached its stretch run with its final production premiere of the year on Friday. The opera of occasion was Stravinsky's wondrous "The Rake's Progress," a mixed genre that takes cues from the famed Faustian legend with more modern flourishes.

As with many modern operas, "Rake's Progress" has had an intermittent history at the Met with the previous run coming in 2003 in a revival of the current production by Jonathan Miller. This production is minimalist in many respects while adhering to more traditional aesthetics. A brothel is pained in bright red with fine detail in costuming and the overall salon. The streets of London, while bare in construction and look, are still recognizable constructions. There are more symbolic gestures with the opening act taking place amid two walls depicting the sky and a house with greenery at the top; it emphasizes the pastoral setting as well as the potential for emotional growth of the characters. This is in stark contrast to Tom's apartment which is a pale beige color; the window upstage is not only patterned to look like a jail cell (later the design will be echoed in the insane asylum) but outside one can note more colorful buildings, almost as if Tom's world were sterile compared to the outside. Moreover, the space is massive enhancing the sense of emptiness that even a massive hanging shark cannot minimize.

The opera itself moves at a rather brisk pace as it is built out of a number of self-contained scenes, mimicking the structured painting series by English artist William Hogarth. The problem with the set-up in this production is that it leads to a number of pauses throughout the night that undercut the moment. And of course for modern audiences, now used to turntable sets to keep the action going, it can get a bit cumbersome having to wait for two or three minutes after quick 20 minute scenes.

The cast assembled by the Met for this run was absolutely wonderful. As Tom Paul Appleby announced himself a true rising star. His tenor had a warm and vibrant sound throughout and really blossomed in the upper stratosphere. His portrayal of the character saw Tom move from an ardent and energetic youth that pranced about in the opening acts, to an increasingly introspected and eventually zombie-like creation by the work's final scenes. Even though vocally his confrontation with Nick Shadow was tour-de-force battle of wills, his restricted movement suggested a man losing control. By the end of the work, now believing himself Adonis (an apt metaphor for an ultimately selfish being), he crawled on the floor like an animal, his humanity completely annihilated. The highlight for him was the aria about love that he sings in the second scene of the work. Here Appleby sang quietly, bringing the audience into a different world that contrasted heavily from the explosive brothel around him. It is one of the few moments that reminds of Tom's innocence, and Appleby's delicate rendition drove the emotional idea wonderfully.

This contrasted with the heroine Anne who actually shifts from a position of weakness to an increasing sense of strength. Anne's big turning point comes at the end of Act 1 when she essentially makes her decision to run away from home and save her lover. Stravinsky actually structures this scene like a traditional Italian double aria. In the first of the arias, soprano Layla Claire, sang delicately and subdued, emphasizing Anne's doubt and insecurity over her decision. But in the second aria, when she has resolved to save him, her voice soared, the coloratura runs thrown off with confidence and ease. In ensuing scenes, she took the blows with grace, never actually betraying any sense of defeat. It made her continued search Tom in the final act credible and all the more heartbreaking.

Stephanie Blythe has made a career out of scene-stealing at the Met and her turn as Baba the Turk was no different. Commanding her ever-potent voice, Blythe took on every vocal challenge with aplomb, including some terrific coloratura passages right before she gets shut up by Tom. There was a tremendous virility and violence in her portrayal as well, particularly in one scene where she destroyed everything in her path. There was a sense of strength, but at the same time emphasized Baba's childish behavior. In her final moment of redemption, Blythe dominated the floor, and when she turned toward the audience at one moment, there was a flash of light that aptly supported her star power. As she ran off stage, the audience burst into applause, despite the fact that music-proper had not come to an end.

Gerald Finley was also fascinating as Nick Shadow. He seemed to be restrained in his initially interactions with Tom, but at the very end of the opening scene turned to the audience in a rather quick jerk and delivered the menacing "The Progress of a Rake Begins." He played coy with Appleby's Tom, but as the night progressed, his villainy increasingly came to the fore and his singing developed in strength; a massive emotional crescendo that would bear fruits in the electric confrontation between Tom and Nick. Here Finley was at his most tempestuous, his voice soaring over Appleby's as he sought control of the situation. He was a demon-incarnate.

Brindley Sherratt struck a strong presence in his Met Opera debut as Anne's father Trulove. His sang with tenderness and expressed a sense of overprotection of his daughter. Even his opening exchange with Tom, in which he tells Tom that he will not have her marry a lazy man, was filled with an ominous tone that clearly set the two men at odds.

Margaret Lattimore was firm as Mother Goose, stealing an emphatic dramatic moment when she claimed Tom for herself.

In the pit, James Levine drew gorgeous sounds from the orchestra all night long starting with the energetic brass section at the work's beginning and ending with the celebratory quintet that ends the opera. Other memorable moments include the woodwind accompaniment to Tom's initially madness, which contrasted heavily with the explosive orchestral statements from the confrontation between Tom and Nick. He managed to keep the work moving at a solid pace, managing to avoid pauses after major arias and keeping the recitativo passages flowing as if one unit.

Bryan Wagorn made his presence felt at the harpsichord, playing off the orchestra in passages where the two styles combined and even clashed.

This "Rake's Progress" is opera at its finest -- a modern retelling of a legend brought to life with glorious artists and a strong production. The production gets two more performances and audiences who really want to experience the wonder of the art form in its full beauty will likely not get any other such opportunities at the Met at the present moment.