MacMillan’s immediate source of inspiration for a First World
War ballet was Vera Brittain’s autobiographical Testament of
Youth. A poem from it, ‘The War Generation: Ave’ is quoted in
the programme book whenever Gloria is performed. The ballet can
also be seen as a testament to MacMillan’s Scottish father, who
had been gassed in the First World War and who suffered the
after-effects for the rest of his life. He never spoke of his
experience in the trenches. He died of pneumonia when Kenneth
was 17. Although Poulenc’s Gloria in G is in praise of God in
the highest, MacMillan intended it to be an elegy for young
lives cut short or blighted by war. It could be seen as the
third of his works contemplating mortality, set to vocal music:
the earlier two are Song of the Earth (1965) and Requiem (1976).
This time, unlike the previous occasions, no objections were
raised by the board of the Royal Opera House to his choice of
sacred music for a ballet. MacMillan briefed his young designer,
Andy Klunder, to look at pho