- The Pilgrim’s Progress is a morality (opera) in four acts based on John Bunyan’s religious allegory. Vaughan Williams wrote the libretto himself, adapted from Bunyan’s prose as well as additions from the Psalms and other biblical passages. Although Vaughan Williams completed the opera in 1949, Bunyan’s text had captivated the composer for over four decades.
- Vaughan Williams first pursued setting Bunyan’s text to music in 1906 by composing music for a dramatized version to be performed in Reigate Priory. Elements from this initial work made their way into the final version of the opera score.1
- Interestingly, before the opera’s completion, The Pilgrim’s Progress took on one additional form as a radio play completed in 1942.2
- The Pilgrim’s Progress was first performed in 1951 at Covent Garden. The four acts of the morality are presented more as a series of tableaux rather than interconnected scenes.3
- Fun fact – Vaughan Williams believed he would never finish the opera and consequently borrowed material from the drafts for his fifth symphony.4
Sources
- Robert Matthew-Walker, Essay in accompanying booklet, Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5 & Scenes adapted from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins, Hyperion 68325, 2020, compact disc.
- Hugh Ottaway and Alain Frogley, “Vaughan Williams, Ralph,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 27, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000042507.
- Robert Matthew-Walker, Essay in accompanying booklet, Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5 & Scenes adapted from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
- Hugh Ottaway and Alain Frogley, “Vaughan Williams, Ralph,” Grove Music Online.
Cut IDs
24776