The Rake's Progress  

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The Rake's Progress is an English opera 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 May 2, 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. The moral of the tale is: "For idle hearts and hands and minds the Devil finds a work to do."



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Rake's Progress" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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