The Pilgrim’s Progress: First review
OperaTony Sanderson reports on The Pilgrim’s Progress at the Three Choirs Festival last night.
British Youth Opera, an organisation that Arts Council England still funds, brought energy and zest to Vaughan Williams’ majestic score, captivating the audience in Gloucester Cathedral.
Based on a dream he experienced in prison, John Bunyan’s characters Lord Turn-About and Mister Facing-Bothways still resonate today. Vaughan Williams’ setting is rarely performed; after this semi-staged performance, one wonders why. Charlotte Corduroy conducted the work with energy and drive. The Royal Philharmonic were at their best, with the brass section particularly excellent.
One of the highlights was the scene in Vanity Fair, where the singers seem to mock Pilgrim with great gusto taunting him with offers of fleshly delights. Pilgrim in the form of Ross Cumming, stood firm and the chorus joined him in the celestial city, their faces shining with the knowledge of a job well done. Mathew Curtis stepped in at short notice as Interpreter and projected with clarity and power. Let’s hope Mister Facing BothWays soon quits the Arts Council.
Excellent were Emyr Lloyd Jones, Lydia Shariff and Ross Cumming. The whole thing was well prepared. Corderoy could have enforced more piano at several points, to quibble.
This as the very first opera I was ever in as a music student. It was done in 1972 at the Colchester School of Music – then called the North-East Essex Technical College with an amazing graduate music department you would not expect – to celebrate the 100th anniversary of VW’s death, and has never been mentioned as the only performance at the time. it was then done later by the Royal Northern College of Music, I think in the 90s, and then by ENO, all equally good performances and productions. Ours was directed by Ursula Vaughan Williams herself.
The RNCM did it quite recently – within the last few years, anyway.