The Rake's Progress premiered at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 11 September 1951 with the same composer on the podium. Organised in arias, recitatives, choruses and ensemble pieces in line with the 18th-century theatrical scheme, the work shows a retrospective character and represents the last stage of Stravinsky's 'neoclassical' period.
Opera in three acts. Libretto by Wystan Hugh Auden and Chester Kallmann;
music by Igor Stravinsky.
