The Pilgrim's Progress
From: Monday, 5th November 2012
To: Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Our Review: 
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Synopsis
Adaptation of John Bunyan's great work. Premiered during the 1951 Festival of Britain, Vaughan Williams's sublime ?morality' charts the trials, tribulations, temptations and revelations that Bunyan's questing Pilgrim encounters on his physical and spiritual progress ?from this world to that which is to come'.
Our Review:
6 November 2012
Following a superlative Death in Venice at Aldeburgh in 2007 (later seen at Bregenz and soon to be revived by Opera North), Yoshi Oida’s London opera debut is long overdue. Unfortunately his stark, incisive style founders somewhat against the austere demands of Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, which, lying closer to oratorio than opera, is so fundamentally undramatic that, as with stagings of works like Bach’s Passions, it’s almost impossible to avoid imposing a faux theatricality on it.
Although it worked well enough for Janacek in his final opera, Oida’s basic conceit of presenting the story as a play put on by prisoners feels clichéd and straining for context. He takes his cue, of course, from the fact that Bunyan wrote his morality tale while imprisoned, and that’s how Vaughan Williams frames his adaptation, but Oida overplays the ritual in an unduly reverential approach to...
Latest User Review
Reich - 8 November 2012:
The score is gorgeous and it’s played and sung so well in production that is so beautiful. Well worth it, especially the final 10 minutes of choral writing ...
Cast
Roland Wood (Pilgrim/John Bunyan)
Benedict Nelson (Evangelist/Watchful/First Shepherd)
George von Bergen (Obstinate/Heraldd/Lord Hate-Good)
Tim Robinson (Interpreter/User/Mr By-Ends/Second Shepherd)
Colin Judson (Timorous/Lord Lechery/Messenger)
Alexander Sprague (Pliable/Superstition/Celestrial Voice 1)
Mark Richardson (Mistrust/Apollyon/Envy/Third Shepherd)
Eleanor Dennis (First Shining One/Madam Wanton/Voice of a Bird/Celestial Voice 3)
Kitty Whately (Third Shining One/Cup-bearer/Pickthank/Woodcutter's Boy)
Ann Murray (Madam Bubble/Mrs By-Ends/Celestial Voice 2)
Creative
Vaughan Williams (Author)
English National Opera (Producer)
Martyn Brabbins (Conductor)
Yoshi Oida (Director)
Tom Schenk (Design)
Tom Schenk (video) (Design)
Sue Willimington (Costume)
Lutz Deppe (Lighting)
Carolyn Choa (Choreographer)
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