The Rake's Progress

This article is about the opera by Igor Stravinsky. For the paintings by William Hogarth, see A Rake's Progress. For other uses, see Rake's Progress (disambiguation).

The Rake's Progress
Opera by Igor Stravinsky
The composer
Librettist
Based onA Rake's Progress by William Hogarth
Premiere
11 September 1951 (1951-09-11)
Teatro La Fenice, Venice

The Rake's Progress is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress (1733–1735) of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on 2 May 1947, in a Chicago exhibition.

The story concerns the decline and fall of one Tom Rakewell, who deserts Anne Trulove for the delights of London in the company of Nick Shadow, who turns out to be the Devil. After several misadventures, all initiated by the devious Shadow, Tom ends up in Bedlam, a hospital for the insane at that time situated in the City of London. The moral of the tale is: "For idle hearts and hands and minds the Devil finds work to do."