From the Barbican, London, as part of the Vision of Albion festival. Vaughan Williams's opera represents the culmination of a lifetime's work on music inspired by John Bunyan's famous allegory. The Royal Opera's first production since the 1951 premiere is conducted by Richard Hickox and semi-staged by Joseph Ward , whose acclaimed Royal Northern College of Music production in 1992 triumphantly vindicated the work as true theatre. The name of the central character who struggles through the trials of life towards the Celestial City was changed by Vaughan Williams from the Christian to the Pilgrim. As he explained to a friend with characteristic bluntness, "I want the idea to be universal and appeal to anybody who aims at the spiritual life - Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Shintoist or Fifth Day Adventist!"
Introduced by Chris de Souza.
Other roles sung by Francis Egerton, Rebecca Evans, Susan Gritton, Robert Hayward, Anne-Marie Owens, Mark Padmore, Gidon Saks, Pamela Helen Stephen, Adrian Thompson, Roderick Williams, Donaldson Bell, Roland Brandman, Richard Coxon, Jonathan Fisher, Neil Gillespie, John Kerr and Christopher Keyte
Royal Opera Chorus, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conductor Richard Hickox

Prologue; Acts 1 and 2

7.55 Vaughan Williams In Paradise
Stephen Johnson examines Vaughan Williams 's spiritual quest as reflected in his music.

8.10 Acts 3 and 4; Epilogue