Saturday, 22:30 on BBC Radio 3, Hear & Now

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