The Dream of Gerontius (1968)

Overview

Long considered lost footage, this exceptional concert, which originally aired April 14, 1968, on the BBC, is a full-colour performance of Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius recorded inside the stunning Canterbury Cathedral and featuring three of the greatest voices of the era: mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker, tenor Sir Peter Pears, and bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk. Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, ardent champion and esteemed interpreter of Elgar’s works, this concert film — which required eight of the nine existing colour cameras in the UK at the time — constitutes a rare and treasured artifact marking the beginning of high-quality colour footage of British operatic productions.