McCartney Times

Recorded in 1966, John Tavener’s epic cantata The Whale was an epic telling of the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale, split into eight sections: I. Documentary, II. Melodrama and Pantomime, III. Invocation. IV. The Storm, V. The Swallowing, VI. The Prayer. VII. In the Belly, and VIII. The Vomiting. It was a regal production with a pop background provided by John Lennon.The project premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1968 when the composer was just 24 years old. It was innovative and original, receiving rave reviews and airplay from BBC Radio. But its encyclopaedic descriptions of whale facts seemed slightly too left-field for a record label to take a chance on.

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Source: ‘The Whale’: an opera The Beatles brought to the masses