Rutland Boughton

Among his many works, the prolific Boughton composed a complete series of five operas of Arthurian mythos, written over a period of thirty-five years: The Birth of Arthur (1909), The Round Table (1915–16), The Lily Maid (1933–34), Galahad (1943–44) and Avalon (1944–45).

[1] As a committed socialist, Boughton's early influences included William Morris, John Ruskin, George Bernard Shaw, and Edward Carpenter, the last of which with whom he developed a lifelong relationship.

[2] He later took up ad hoc work first in the pit of the Haymarket Theatre then as official accompanist to the baritone David Ffrangcon-Davies (whose daughter, Gwen, later became associated with the Glastonbury Festivals in her famous role Etain in The Immortal Hour).

As a young man, he planned a fourteen-day cycle of dramas on the life of Christ in which the story would be enacted on a small stage in the middle of an orchestra while soloists and the chorus would comment on the action.

Although this did not come to anything, the idea remained with him and by 1907 Boughton's discovery of the theories and practices of Richard Wagner, combined with his impression that the church's vision of Christianity had somewhat failed, resulted in another subject – King Arthur.

Based upon the Ring Cycle at Bayreuth, and parallel to the ideas of the young poet Reginald Buckley in his book "Arthur of Britain", Boughton set out to create a new form of opera which he later called "choral drama".

Whilst London's Covent Garden was ideal for the established operatic repertoire, it would not prove to be so for the plans that Boughton and Buckley had and eventually they decided that they should build their own theatre and, using local talent, set up a form of commune or cooperative.

At first Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire was deemed a suitable location for the project (the Arts and Crafts Movement was significant at that time) but they later turned to the Somerset town of Glastonbury, the alleged resting place of King Arthur and in an area steeped in legend.

Meanwhile, Sir Dan Godfrey and his Bournemouth orchestra had established a reputation for supporting new English music and it was here where Boughton's first opera from the Arthurian cycle, The Birth of Arthur, received its first performance.

The first production was not the projected Arthurian Cycle but that of Boughton's new choral-drama, The Immortal Hour, composed in 1912, which with a national appeal to raise funds was produced with the full backing of Sir Granville Bantock, Thomas Beecham, John Galsworthy, Eugene Goossens, Gustav Holst, Dame Ethel Smyth and Shaw and others.

From 1927 until his death in 1960, Boughton lived at Kilcot, near Newent in Gloucestershire where he completed the last two operas of his Arthurian cycle (Avalon and Galahad, which to this day have not been performed) and produced some of his finest works, the quality of which has only been realised within the past twenty years.

In 1934 and 1935, Boughton attempted to repeat his earlier successes at Glastonbury with festivals commissioned at Stroud and Bath, and these saw the release of new works, The Lily Maid (the third opera in the Arthurian Cycle) and The Ever Young.