Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) after John Bunyan
Conductor, Martyn Brabbins Director, Yoshi Oïda
ENO stages the first full professional performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress since its premiere at the 1951 Festival of Britain
English National Opera’s new production of Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrim’s Progress highlights the company’s commitment to celebrating great 20th century British opera. Yoshi Oïda’s directorial debut with ENO marks the first full professional staging of Vaughan William’s seminal work since its premiere at the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Vaughan Williams spent 40 years of his life perfecting The Pilgrim’s Progress – a sublime ‘morality’ that charts the trials, tribulations, temptations and revelations that Bunyan’s questing Pilgrim encounters on his physical and spiritual progress ‘from the world to that which is to come’.
The opera is based on the original two-part book of the same title, an extended Christian allegory by John Bunyan, published in the late 1600s. Although Vaughan Williams was a self-professed agnostic, he wrote in a letter in May 1951 that he wanted the music to “apply to anyone who aims at a spiritual life”.
Drawing on traditional Japanese Noh theatre, actor, film and theatre director Yoshi Oïda’s highly original technique bridges Eastern and Western theatrical methods. Oïda makes his ENO debut following a number of recent high profile European productions including stagings for the National Theatre Prague and Opéra National du Rhin. Oïda made his name as an innovative interpreter of English 20th-century opera with his UK debut production of Death in Venice – “a superb performance” (Daily Telegraph) – for the Aldeburgh and Bregenz festivals (2007), on which he worked with conductor Martyn Brabbins.
Brabbins is well-known for his championing of British Music, including his previous appearance for ENO, in 2005, when he conducted a ‘grippingly urgent and muscular’ (The Guardian) account of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Brabbins is Chief Conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic. He was previously Artistic Director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music 2005-2007 and Associate Principal Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 1994-2005.
The Pilgrim’s Progress opens at the London Coliseum on 5 November for 7 performances – November 5, 9, 16, 20, 22 & 28 at 7.30pm and Nov 24 at 6.30pm
New production in association with The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust and supported by ENO’s English Opera Group and the Friends of ENO.