The Faustian and Mephistophelean Worlds in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress

Abstract

Created by Igor Stravinsky, in collaboration with W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, the Faustian opera The Rake’s Progress (1947–51) was inspired by a series of engravings by William Hogarth. The collaboration between Stravinsky and Auden is a fascinating study, not only because of the way in which these luminaries interacted to produce this masterwork, but also because it provides insights into Stravinsky’s compositional process for his first dramatic work that involved the setting of a text in English. This chapter provides a glimpse into the process for specific musical passages in The Rake’s Progress and considers certain parallels between the storyline of Auden’s text and that of Goethe’s Faust.