The Choral
The Choral
The Choral is a 2025 British historical drama film co-produced and directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Alan Bennett. Set in 1916, during World War I, in the fictional town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, the film follows the members of the local choral society which recruits a disparate group of townspeople for a performance of Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, a work chosen because it was not written by a German. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms, and Simon Russell Beale.
Plot
With their choirmaster joining the army, a choral group in the Yorkshire town of Ramsden decides to take a chance on appointing Dr Henry Guthrie as his replacement, despite Guthrie's homosexuality, Germanophilia and atheism. A brick is thrown through the audition room window with a note stating "Hun muck", referring to Guthrie and/or the choice of work (an English translation of the St Matthew Passion by German composer Bach). Instead Guthrie proposes Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, which is accepted despite misgivings about the composer's Catholicism and the work's inclusion of purgatory. To supplement the diminishing number of male singers, Guthrie recruits male voices from the nearby military hospital.
Plot
Two of the singers start a relationship, as Bella's sweetheart Clyde is "missing believed dead". He arrives back in the town after having his arm amputated, but Bella feels committed to her new young man. Guthrie receives news of the sinking of the German battleship Pommern and Elgar's approval almost simultaneously – he is grief-stricken as his lover was a sailor on that battleship. Guthrie's gay pianist Robert tells him of his intention to register as a conscientious objector rather than be conscripted, but fails to convince a hostile and jingoistic conscription board of this despite (or perhaps because of) Guthrie being allowed to appear as a witness in his favour.
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