The Rake's Progress
opera by Igor Stravinsky / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rake's Progress is an opera by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings from the 18th century by William Hogarth called A Rake's Progress. Stravinsky had seen these paintings in 1947 at an exhibition in Chicago.
The Rake’s Progress tells the story of a man called Tom Rakewell. The word “rake” in this sense means “someone (usually a man) who behaves in an immoral way: a man who has relationships with lots of women.
The word “progress” in the title is ironic because Tom does not really make progress: he does not become a better man. In a sense he progresses backwards, because he starts off in a state of blissful innocence, i.e. he does not understand anything about his life, he does not know about good and bad. At the end of the opera he also does not understand anything about his life, but that is because he has gone mad.
Tom is like Faust because he sells his soul to the devil. In this opera the character Nick Shadow represents the devil. Tom leaves his lover Anne Trulove and goes to find lots of other women in London. He has several adventures, which are all arranged by Nick who is helping him to have a good time. In the end Tom finds himself in Bedlam which was a horrible building where mad people were sent in the 18th century.