Stravinsky, Hogarth and Bedlam

P Crichton

doi:10.1192/pb.19.8.496

Abstract

“Hogarth's Rakes's Progress paintings, which I saw in 1947 on a chance visit to the Chicago Art Institute, immediately suggested a series of operatic scenes to me.” (Stravinsky & Craft, 1960). By 1947 Stravinsky's career, which had started so brilliantly and stormily with the revolutionary Rite of Spring, was almost totally becalmed. Since emigrating from Paris to California in 1940, he had written a couple of untempestuous orchestral pieces, Circus Polka, “composed for a young elephant”, and little else. He was depressed by the lack of originality of his work and was eager to write an opera in English. When he saw the paintings of the Rake's Progress, he seized his opportunity.

Highlights

Saw in 1947 on a chance visit to the Chicago Aopret rIantsictitustcee, neims mtoedimatee.l"y
"Early the morning, primed by cRoafkfee'es anPdrogwrhesissk. y,Stawretinbgegawnithwoark hoenro,thea heroine, and a villain, and deciding that these people should be a tenor, a soprano, and a bass, we proceeded to invent a series of scenes leading up to the final scene in Bedlam that was already fixed in our minds
The germ of the opera seems to hHaovgeartbhe'sen patihnetingfinaolf sthciesnesceinne Btehdelraem,is hai figure on the left wearing a score on his head and playing a one-stringed fiddle

Summary

Introduction

Saw in 1947 on a chance visit to the Chicago Aopret rIantsictitustcee, neims mtoedimatee.l"y (sSutgragveisntsekdy a &serCiersafot,f 1960). 1d9if6f0e)renInt ten days they had reconstructed Hogarth's plot, completed a synopsis, and drafted fragments of dialogue and a plan for musical pieces within the scenes (Carpenter, 1981), Figure 1. The germ of the opera seems to hHaovgeartbhe'sen patihnetingfinaolf sthciesnesceinne Btehdelraem,is hai figure on the left wearing a score on his head and playing a one-stringed fiddle.

Results

Conclusion