Rake's Progress, The

Opera by IGOR STRAVINSKY, 1951, first performed in Venice. The LIBRETTO, in English, was written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kaliman, its title taken from a series of satirical lithographs by the 18th-century British artist William Hogarth.

The story is a parable. The title character, Tom Rakewell (rake being a British slang word meaning a rogue or ne'erdo-well), is led into a series of adventures. He marries a bearded circus lady and invests a fortune in a device that grinds stones into flour and makes bread. Tom gambles for his soul with the devil, and though the devil loses, he causes Tom to lose his mind. The moral pronounced in the epilogue is very much in the manner of 18th-century fabulists: "For ideal hearts and hands and minds, the devil finds work to do."

The music imitates the BAROQUE style, with formal ARIAS, RECITATIVES, and choral INTERMEZZOS. But the rhythmic scheme is alive with angularities and asymmetries in the characteristic modern vein. The COUNTERPOINT allows for DISSONANCE, and the work moves freely between various KEYS. The orchestration is economical, with the HARPSICHORD (with a written-out part) serving as the primary voice.