Page "Opera" Paragraph 56

However, operatic modernism's use of atonality also sparked a backlash in the form of neoclassicism.

An early leader of this movement was Ferruccio Busoni, who in 1913 wrote the libretto for his neoclassical number opera Arlecchino ( first performed in 1917 ).

Also among the vanguard was the Russian Igor Stravinsky.

After composing music for the Diaghilev-produced ballets Petrushka ( 1911 ) and The Rite of Spring ( 1913 ), Stravinsky turned to neoclassicism, a development culminating in his opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex ( 1927 ).

Well after his Rimsky-Korsakov-inspired works The Nightingale ( 1914 ), and Mavra ( 1922 ), Stravinsky continued to ignore serialist technique and eventually wrote a full-fledged 18th century-style diatonic number opera The Rake's Progress ( 1951 ).

His resistance to serialism ( which ended at the death of Schoenberg ) proved to be an inspiration for many other composers.