On Saturday 8 October, the Parliament Choir have been invited to perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in San Paolo Fuori le Mura, the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. The invitation was extended following a moving performance that was given by the Parliament Choir and the Southbank Sinfonia at Westminster Cathedral in November 2019. But philanthropic sponsorship is still needed to make the dream become Vatican reality.
Edward Elgar – regarded as perhaps the greatest Catholic composer of the 20th century – composed The Dream of Gerontius work in 1900, from the poem written by Saint John Henry Newman in 1865. This great poetic work shows man’s journey from death through Purgatory and thence to Paradise, and to God. The poem accompanies the main character as he nears his earthly end and then reawakens as a soul, preparing for judgement, following one of the most important events any human can experience: death.
