The Masque at Kenilworth

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Kenilworth, A Masque of the Days of Queen Elizabeth (commonly referred to as "The Masque at Kenilworth"), is a cantata by Henry Fothergill Chorley and Arthur Sullivan (with some Shakespeare quotations) that premiered at the Birmingham Festival on 8 September 1864.

Sullivan and Chorley were collaborating on an opera, The Sapphire Necklace, that they had hoped would be produced at Covent Garden. Instead, Covent Garden's musical director, Michael Costa, arranged for Sullivan to get a commission for the 1864 Birmingham Festival, and this cantata was the result.

Kenilworth is an attempt to reconstruct one of the masques performed for Queen Elizabeth on her visit to Robert Dudley at Kenilworth Castle in 1575.[1] Dudley entertained the Queen with pageants and banquets that cost some £1000 per day. It consists of various mythical entities praising Elizabeth, dancing, and one song from Merchant of Venice.

Chorley's trivial libretto was ridiculed. In addition, the piece created some controversy, as Chorley changed a line of Shakespeare: In No 6, "Scene from the Merchant of Venice," the line reads "Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubum, / Such harmony is in immortal sounds." Shakespeare wrote "immortal souls," and Chorley faced much criticism over this mistake.[2]

Nevertheless, the piece is pleasant throughout, and the young Sullivan's effort showed promise.[citation needed] Its most successful movement was the duet, "How sweet the Moonlight sleeps." However, the work seems to have had only two performances before virtually disappearing.

This cantata has no relation to the work of the same name by Sir Walter Scott.

[edit] List of musical numbers

1. Introduction: A Summer Night (Instrumental)
2. Chorus, "Hark! The Sound that Hails a King" (Chorus)
Song of praise in greeting to Queen Elizabeth, and description of the entertainment to come.
3. Song, "I have slept beneath the water" (The Lady of the Lake)
4. Quartett and Chorus of Sylvans, "Let Fauns the cymbal ring"
5. Slow Dance with Chorus
6. Arion's Song, "I am a ruler on the sea"
Compares Arion being rescued by dolphins to Britain's mastery of the sea.
6a. Solo: "Place for the Queen our Show to see, Now speak Immortal Poetry"
7. Scene from the Merchant of Venice: "How sweet the moonlight sleeps"
This song is made up of parts of several conversations between Lorenzo and Jessica in Act V, Scene I.
8. A Brisk Dance
9. Solo and Chorus: "After banquet, play, and riot" ... "Sleep, great Queen!"

[edit] External links

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