MAPESU Music proudly presents this brand new engraving of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, an English‑language opera in three acts and an epilogue, composed between 1947 and 1951 on a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, loosely based on William Hogarth’s 1733–35 paintings A Rake’s Progress. It received its world premiere at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 11 September 1951, with Robert Rounseville as Tom Rakewell, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Anne Trulove, and Otakar Kraus as Nick Shadow.

The drama follows young Tom Rakewell, who forsakes his devoted fiancée Anne to pursue pleasure in London under the sway of Nick Shadow—the Devil in disguise. Over three acts (plus a brief epilogue), Tom’s descent—from gambling and debauchery to madness—unfolds through a sequence of London taverns, gambling dens, and ultimately Bedlam asylum. The moral—“For idle hearts and hands and minds the Devil finds work to do”—echoes Hogarth’s cautionary tale.

Musically, the score epitomizes Stravinsky’s neoclassical phase: it employs clear tonal centers, diatonic melodies, and formal devices (arias, recitatives, ensemble numbers) reminiscent of Mozart, Handel, and early opera seria, yet imbued with modern rhythmic vitality and harmonic twists. Instrumentation is leaner than late‑Romantic opera, favoring transparent textures that highlight contrapuntal lines and witty orchestral interjections.

Since its premiere, The Rake’s Progress has entered the core 20th‑century opera repertoire—it remains “more performed than any other opera written after the death of Puccini” —praised for its wit, dramatic economy, and fusion of Baroque models with 20th‑century sensibilities. Its enduring appeal lies in the seamless marriage of moral fable, theatrical clarity, and Stravinsky’s distinctive musical voice