What is The Rake's Progress?
'''''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]]. ==Musical style== The Rake’s Progress is the only full-length opera that Stravinsky wrote. It is unusual because it was not written in the modern way of most music of the 1950s. Because the story of the opera is set in the 18th century, the style of the music is deliberately like music from that period. It is divided into [[aria]]s and [[recitative]] (big songs which are linked with simpler music which tells the story). Stravinsky’s music in this opera is in the [[neoclassical]] style. He uses [[counterpoint]] a lot in this opera. This helped him later on to write [[serial]] music: music in w