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Thursday 4 December 2008

Morality takes to the stage

Henrietta Bredi joins in the preparations for Vaughan Williams's 'The Pilgrim's Progress'

Thankfully, the singers were all equipped and ready for action when Richard Hickox (whose seemingly bottomless reserves of energy and stamina make him resemble one of the more rarified characters straight from the pages of Pilgrim’s Progress itself) picked up his baton and set to work. The detail and precision involved in this preparation process is remarkable and you can hear the difference, the way in which each instruction changes the overall sound, shaping and tightening and honing every phrase. This session is accompanied by piano and Hickox is constantly reminding the singers of the effect that the orchestra will eventually make, adjusting the balance to take that into account. ‘A little more length on the consonants there,’ he urges, ‘more “t” on “treasure” and lots of “j” on “joy”.’ And that’s exactly what he gets.

The next phase of preparation will add dramatic interpretation to the mix, with director David Edwards working with the soloists to create a staging which will bring the narrative to life. Vaughan Williams never called this piece an opera; he referred to it as a Morality, and what most appealed to him in the original text by John Bunyan was the story’s universal significance. He transformed it from an exclusively Christian story to one with relevance to all faiths and creeds and it inspired him to write music of a limpid simplicity and directness, shot through with his own particular, devoutly humanist, spirituality.

Edwards is devising a way in which the singers, most of whom are portraying more than one role, will take on their characters, threading their way through the thickets of instrumentalists to emerge as a Heavenly Being or Superstition or Madam Wanton as occasion demands. At the first gathering of all the soloists in a large airy rehearsal studio near Waterloo station, the volume cranks up as introductions are made and acquaintances renewed. Gidon Saks (Mistrust/Apollyon/Lord Hate-Good) lets rip with a window-rattling, black-treacle laugh that I hope he gets a chance to employ during the course of the action and Roderick Williams (one role only — the central one of the Pilgrim) leans thoughtfully on the rough wooden pilgrim’s staff that Edwards has helpfully brought along with him. Hickox walks through the door and hands me his mobile phone so that I can talk to a colleague of his in Sydney about a so-far intractable problem concerning a performing licence. My nerves have become increasingly finely shredded over this particular situation but at the end of the phone call I sense a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Apologies are made for Pliable, who has a throat infection, and then that hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck thing happens all over again. Despite being so slim and finely made that you wouldn’t have thought he could have it in him, Roderick Williams sings his opening line: ‘What shall I do? What shall I do to be saved?’ with a voice of brazen, trumpet-tongued vigour that is truly thrilling.

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