The Lord's Prayer

Working as an opera singer in the 1980s & 90s I used to receive in the post opera scores with the English translation that we were about to use in a production. For example, the postman would arrive with The Dialogue of the Carmelites from English National Opera (pictured below with Joan Rodgers), The Bartered Bride from Opera North, The Barber of Seville from Welsh National Opera; you get the idea, foreign works performed in English for English punters. Generally it was far easier to sing an opera in the original language, Italian, French or German, but I totally changed my mind on that when singing Janacek’s Katya Kabanova for the Glyndebourne Festival, in Czech. Aaaagh. 

However when the rehearsals started, a gentle negotiation with the director and conductor would begin, as we tried to mould the translation a little closer to the original and make it just a little more singable – e.g. ‘darling’ is closer to the Italian ‘cara’ than ‘dearest’; a more open vowel for that big high note.


I found myself negotiating with the director of the Lord’s Prayer the other afternoon. Playing devotionally with the words as it moved, on this occasion, from being our communal liturgy to being my aria. You may not be able to sing in this key, but I would love it if you would let your imagination loose and post your Lord’s Prayer as a response. This is mine:

I pray to the one who loves me,

the divine Father,

whose name is holiness.

Unleash the dominion of Jesus.

Reveal your will, and draw us to it.

Starve the unholy in me, feed what remains.

Forgive me my ugliness as I choose

to see your beauty in those who come against me.

Drown me in mercy as I dive into sin.

With both hands rescue me from the stench within and the black without.

For all is yours, 

time & existence, heavy glory & and impossible radiance,

all is held together by you. 

Come.