The Rake's Progress Judith Raskin as Ann and John Reardon as Nick Shadow, is from London 1964 and is conducted by Stravinsky himself. It is currently available on the Sony/BMG 22-CD box set "Works of Igor Stravinsky". Sources The Rake's Progress The Rake's Progress is an English-language 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 2 May 1947, in a Chicago exhibition. The story concerns the decline and fall of
Cowdray engravings was rendered as a watercolour by John and Charles Sherwin and then engraved by James Basire. Samuel Hieronymous Grimm copied the remaining four paintings which Basire then engraved. The engravings were published in 1788 with a print run of 400 copies, distributed to fellow of the society and sold to the public. Cowdray House burnt down on 24 September 1793 and the paintings were mostly destroyed as the rendering came away from the walls, although some fragments may have survived for a few years after the fire. This left the engravings as the only record. The historian Bernard Nurse considers