From: bill@rsphy7.anu.edu.au (Bill Alford)
Subject: Re: "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "Wuthering Heights"
Reply-To: bill@phys.anu.edu.au
Organization: SCU, RSPhyScE, Australian National University, Canberra
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 07:11:35 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.222224.15231@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>,
rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle) writes:
>Vaughan Williams' opera is a masterpiece indeed, but it puts great
>demands on the performers (the Pilgrim is on stage throughout almost
>the entire work), as well on the designers of the stage production,
who
>are asked to provide almost cinematic effects. For these reasons, this
>opera is perhaps better encountered at home where one can close one's
>eyes and be transported to the House Beautiful or to the Delectable
>Mountains without distractions. 
>
>...
>
>The The 6th side of the original LPs included rehearsal excerpts, and
these
>are preserved here. While they give little insight into just what it
is
>that makes Boult's Vaughan Williams as wonderful as it is, they are
fun
>to hear - once at least. 

 I have several comments to make about this. The rehersal excerpts show just
how much distortion mixing consoles, etc have made to the final product.
I haven't
heard the CD's yet (I have them on order) but I have 3 sets of the LP's
and everything
comes through crystal clear with exemplary imaging in the rehearsal
excerpts,
presumably because they only had a set of microphones above or near Sir
Adrian
to make these excerpts. The final product is a very different picture
with a very
blurred soundstage in comparison.
 From memory RVW didn't consider this an opera but more a morality play
or
something like that. I have attended a very moving live performance of
this work
in the presence of Ursula Vaughan Williams given by local performers in
the 
Canberra School of Music. The stage is normally used for various musical
performances
but it is certainly not set up to do full opera (it doesn't have
curtains, let alone
a proscenium arch or stage machinery, etc), but with various simple but
ingenious
pieces on stage the whole work was spendidly done. Hence I take
exception to
the statement that this work put great demands on the stage production.
Its a
great shame that this work is so rarely performed. I should point out
that other
operatic works have been performed on this stage to great effect,
showing that
you don't need great stage props to perform opera with, just some
ingenuity
(but they do help).
 RVW was composing his Symphony #5 at about the same time as he was
putting
the finishing touches on The Pilgrims Progress and it not surprising to
hear great
echoes of The Pilgrims Progress in his Symphony #5. Hyperion have
released a
CD of the radio version of The Pilgrims Progress which I have yet to
purchase and
have heard a small amount of, but I hope that they (or somebody else)
with great
empathy for RVW's works will get around to a modern recording of the
full 
The Pilgrims Progress instead of the umpteenth version of the 1812,
etc.

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