No Word From Tom - Igor Stravinsky

Pushing the limits on traditional classical and romantic compositional rules, Stravinsky pioneered the 20th Century musical revolution. Although Russian-born, Stravinsky moved to the United States in 1940 and remained there for the remainder of his life after becoming an American citizen. A few years after arriving in the U.S., he wrote his first English-language opera, “The Rake’s Progress,” in which he continues to explore neoclassicism, a technique with which he’d long been fascinated. In this scene, Anne, who is troubled by her husband’s disappearance and lack of communication, makes the determination to find him and support him, despite his apparent abandonment of her. Stravinsky’s stunning tonal 16th-note runs in the cabaletta aria, combined with tastefully-placed dissonance and shifting rhythmic elements, create a perfect convergence of two eras of composition spanning 300 years.