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Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress / Stravinsky, Kraus, Schwarzkopf, Tourel


Release Date: 10/14/2008 
Label:  Opera D'oro   Catalog #: 1488   Spars Code: n/a 
Composer:  Igor Stravinsky
Performer:  Nell Tangeman,  Emanuel Menkes,  Robert Rounseville,  Jennie Tourel,   ... 
Conductor:  Igor Stravinsky
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra,  Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Mono 
Length: 2 Hours 30 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews

This recording documents the world premiere performance of Rake's Progress, conducted by the composer and featuring Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Anne Truelove.

Since his initial successes with the ballets The Firebird, Petrouchka, and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky had worked almost exclusively on commission. His worldwide notoriety assured a steady stream of requests for the world’s great orchestras. It is all the more peculiar then that The Rake’s Progress was one of the few works he wrote simply because he wanted to, without pressure from anyone. Perhaps by 1947 he felt it was time to make his peace with the world of opera. It was then that he became intrigued by an exhibition in Chicago of Read more prints by William Hogarth (1697-1764), who called his illustrations “modern moral subjects,” and thought to create a neoBaroque opera inspired by these vivid pictures. Stravinsky engaged the eminent British poet W.H. Auden to create a libretto, aided by Chester Kailman; critics consider it one of the most brilliant opera texts ever written. The work was completed in 1951 and first given by the La Scala, Milan company on September 11, but on the stage of Teatro La Fenice in Venice, to settle a contractual dispute. This recording is of the world premiere performance, conducted by the composer. -- Bill Parker [liner notes]
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Works on This Recording

1. Rake's Progress by Igor Stravinsky
Performer:  Nell Tangeman (), Emanuel Menkes (), Robert Rounseville (Tenor),
Jennie Tourel (Mezzo Soprano), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Soprano), Otakar Kraus (Baritone),
Hugues Cuénod (Tenor), Raffaele Arié (Bass)
Conductor:  Igor Stravinsky
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra,  Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1948-1951; USA 
 Venue:  Live  1951 
Length: 149 Minutes 56 Secs. 
Language: English 

Featured Sound Samples

Act I, Scene 1: Prelude
Act I, Scene 3: "I go, I go to him"

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