FULL A Festival of Lessons and Carols King’s College Cambridge 1954
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: A Festival of Lessons and Carols
- Composer: various
- Libretto: various
- Venue & Opera Company: King's College Cambridge, England
- Recorded: 1954
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers:
- Conductor:
- Orchestra:
- Chorus: King's College Choir
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: BBC
- Date Published: 1954
- Format: Broadcast
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
This is the first television broadcast of the service, filmed live on 23rd December 1954 and billed in Radio Times as ‘A Festival of Lessons and Carols’ which lasted 45 minutes.
The carols were a reduced selection of those which were broadcast live on the radio the following day in ‘A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols’ which lasted 1 hour 20 minutes.
The solo in the Bach ‘And there were shepherds’ and the reading of the first lesson, were by the Senior Chorister, R.L. Strickland.
The solo in ‘Once in Royal David’s City is sung by Rodney Williams, who was to become a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey and a choral conductor of some note.
The television broadcast has survived as it was filmed from the live broadcast on 16mm film by a process called Telerecording.
The Story of Nine Lessons & Carols
Beginning in 1880 at Truro to the King’s College 100th Anniversay in 2018
The famous Nine Lessons and Carols Service which is held in Anglican churches at Christmas all across the world today was originally devised by the first Bishop of Truro, Edward Benson and used for the first time on Christmas Eve 1880.
The first service was held in a temporary wooden building whilst Truro Cathedral was being built and this continued for a further six years before the cathedral was completed. .