The Chester Pageant in two versions
THE PLAY as acted by the barbers and wax-chandlers
Dramatis Personae:
Produced by Peter Dews followed by THE MUSIC
Canticle II, Op. 51 by Benjamin Britten
Norma Procter (contralto)
Peter Pears (tenor)
Benjamin Britten (piano) (The Canticle is recorded)
Both the play and the music which follows it set forth the episode of the testing of Abraham's faith and loyalty when God called on him to offer his son as a sacrifice. The play belongs to the fifteenth century; the music was written in 1952 for Kathleen Ferrier and Peter Pears.