The Pilgrim’s Progress, Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester Cathedral, Monday 24 July, 2023.

5*****: David Gray & Paul Gray

Semi-staged opera can be difficult to carry off, seeming to be neither fish nor fowl, perhaps a little half-hearted, or even half-baked. This was definitely not the case with the Three Choirs Festival performance of Vaughan Williams’ morality opera, The Pilgrim’s Progress. A vibrant young cast delivered something which felt more akin to a full realised operatic performance, with simple yet effective costumes and ultra-minimal stage dressing.

The secret to this complete and compelling, yet simple, dramatic telling of the story lay in the complete commitment of the whole cast. Dominating the action as Pilgrim, Baritone Ross Cumming gave an intensely physical interpretation which convincingly embodied the character’s spiritual turmoil. He is possessed of a rich, powerful and glossy tone with a ringing top that added to his characterisation of a feeling of heroism; this is very much in keeping with the idea of ‘The Church Militant’. Bunyan would have thoroughly approved.

His substantial voice was not out of place in a cast largely comprised of powerhouse singers, mostly playing a multiplicity of roles, which effortlessly projected musically and dramatically to fill the cavernous space.

The opera has sometimes been criticized for being too static. The Festival’s performance defied that assessment by managing to maintain momentum throughout. This was very much due to conductor, Charlotte Corderoy’s energetic and fluid reading, but also due to the excellent work of director, Will Kerley and his cast of singing actors. Movement was fully intentional and always flowed from the impulses of the music and the text. Even when still, the performers somehow managed to convey a sense of emotional and dramatic development.

This was particularly evident in the Vanity Fair scene which was brilliantly choreographed and peopled with vivid characters the simply leaped of the stage.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played with precision and passion. Corderoy’s reading brought out all of the familiar and comforting largely modal melodies with which Vaughan Williams seasons and structures his score. These, if metaphors may be mixed, form a breadcrumb trail of spiritual signifiers what lead us inexorably to the opera’s triumphant climax, when Pilgrim reaches the goal of his quest. This was a thrilling sequence to which the singers and players alike gave their all.

Here was a performance not just triumphant in its climax; it was a triumphant achievement in every respect throughout.

Cast

Issy Bridgeman

Charlotte Kennedy

Angelina Dorlin-Barlow

Lydia Shariff

Henry Ross

Gabriel Seawright

Zihua Zhang

Ross Cumming

Jia Huang

Emyr Lloyd Jones

Armand Rabot

Creatives

British Youth Opera

Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Will Kerley – Director

Charlotte Corderoy - Conductor