Goehr: Promised End

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Alexander Goehr's new opera Promised End, in a production by James Conway, recorded at the Linbury Theatre in Covent Garden, London.

A meditation on Shakespeare's King Lear, presented by English Touring Opera, the production features Roderick Earle as Lear, Nigel Robson as Gloucester and Lina Markeby as Cordelia, with contemporary ensemble Aurora conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

The text for the opera is selected, distilled and re-arranged from Shakespeare's King Lear by the composer and the late Shakespeare scholar Sir Frank Kermode who passed away earlier this year. It emphasises one aspect of the great play: King Lear and the Earl of Gloucester, men who in their prime committed errors of judgment, bringing upon themselves their own tragic destinies.

Promised End
by Alexander Goehr

Lear (King of Britain) ..... Roderick Earle
Goneril (Lear's eldest daughter) ..... Jacqueline Varsey
Regan (Lear's second daughter) ..... Julia Sporsen
Cordelia/Fool (Lear's youngest daughter/fool) ..... Lina Markeby
Earl of Gloucester (Lear's vassal) ..... Nigel Robson
Edgar (Gloucester's son) ..... Adrian Dwyer
Edmund (Gloucester's bastard) ..... Nicholas Garrett
Knight/Servant (Lear's retainer) ..... Jeffrey Stewart
Servant/Captain ..... Adam Tunnicliffe

Aurora Orchestra
Ryan Wigglesworth - Conductor
James Conway - Director.