The Golden Legend (oratorio)
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The Golden Legend is a cantata by Arthur Sullivan with libretto by Joseph Bennett, who suggested the topic, based on the 1851 poem of the same name by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. At least 17 performances of the cantata were given in Britain during the first year after its premiere in October 1886, and during Sullivan's lifetime it was widely considered his greatest and most successful work of serious music. Indeed, outside of the comic operas with W. S. Gilbert, this cantata was widely regarded as Sullivan's most successful large-scale composition.
A few days after the first performance Gilbert wrote to Sullivan, "I congratulate you heartily on the success of the Cantata which appears from all accounts to be the biggest thing you've done." In May 1888, there was a performance of the work at the Royal Albert Hall by command of Queen Victoria. She sent for Sullivan after the performance and said, "At last I have heard The Golden Legend, Sir Arthur... You ought to write a grand opera — you would do it so well."
Numerous amateur choral societies performed the work, and at one point the composer declared a moratorium on its performance, fearing that it was becoming over-exposed. After Sullivan's death there was a steady decline in the frequency of performances of "The Golden Legend", in common with all of his serious compositions, and the arrival of a new generation of composers, beginning with Sir Edward Elgar, brought fresh new choral and symphonic works to the British musical scene that crowded out Romantic music. In recent years, however, there has been a significant revival of interest in Sullivan's compositions, including The Golden Legend, and Sir Charles Mackerras conducted a centenary performance of the work at Leeds in 1986, in the same building as the premiere, the newly-restored Leeds Victoria Hall. The first professional recording was finally released in 2001.[1]
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[edit] Background
Sullivan had been associated with the prestigious Leeds Triennial Festival, both as conductor and composer, since 1880, when his choral work The Martyr of Antioch had its premiere at Leeds Town Hall. By 1886, Sullivan was serving as the Leeds Festival's musical director for the third time, and the festival committee commissioned him to compose a new choral work.
Only weeks before Sullivan began composing The Golden Legend in the spring of 1886, Franz Liszt visited London. Liszt knew Sullivan, whom he had met many years earlier in Leipzig, Germany, when Sullivan was a student. Liszt, by then an old man, had asked to be excused himself from conducting one of his symphonic poems for the London Philharmonic Society during the visit; he asked that the orchestra's regular conductor, Sullivan, direct the concert. Liszt's The Legend of St. Elizabeth was also given in London during the visit. While in London, Liszt renewed his acquaintance with Sullivan. Liszt had earlier set the story of The Golden Legend, and Sullivan's oratorio shows substantial Lisztian influence and bears resemblances to Liszt's setting of The Legend of St. Elizabeth, especially in matters of harmony and thematic development.[2]
With The Mikado drawing large audiences in London and New York, Sullivan began writing The Golden Legend in Yorktown, Camberley, England, on April 24, 1886, and rehearsals began on September 10, 1886.[3] Like Sullivan's other Leeds Festival pieces, such as The Martyr of Antioch, the work was presented on a grand scale, with hundreds of voices.[4] The premiere took place on Saturday October 16, 1886 and the success with audiences and critics alike was immediate.
The Leeds Mercury reported:
- How can we describe the scene which followed the last note of the cantata? Let the reader imagine an audience rising to its multitudinous feet in thundering approval; a chorus either cheering with heart and soul or raining down flowers upon the lucky composer; and an orchestra coming out of its habitual calm to wax fervid in demonstration. Never was a more heartfelt ovation. Ovation! nay, it was a greater triumph, one such as acclaimed the successful soldiers of Rome.
Another interesting piece of information about The Golden Legend is that Clara Butt made her professional debut in the piece.[5]
[edit] Characters and original singers
- Elsie, soprano – Emma Albani
- Ursula, contralto – Janet Monach Patey
- Prince Henry, tenor – Edward Lloyd
- Lucifer, bass – Frederic King
- A Forester, bass
- Chorus
[edit] Synopsis
The Prologue depicts a storm raging around Strasburg Cathedral as Lucifer and his spirits of the air try to tear down the cross from the spire, only to be chased away by the ringing of the bells. This failure foreshadows Lucifer's ultimate defeat.
Scene one depicts Prince Henry of Hoheneck at his Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine being tempted by Lucifer. Henry has been stricken with a strange malady, and the famous physicians of Salerno have told him that the only cure is the blood of a maiden who shall, of her own free will, consent to die for his sake. Viewing this as unlikely, he gives way to despair and allows Lucifer, disguised as a travelling physician, to administer alcohol to him in such measure that he is deprived of his place and power and becomes an outcast.
In the second scene, Prince Henry finds shelter in the cottage of one of his vassals, Ursula, whose daughter, Elsie, moved by great compassion for him upon learning the cure for his illness, offers herself in sacrifice, despite her mother's misgivings. Elsie hopes that by giving her life for Henry, she'll become closer to Christ. Elsie and Henry set out for Salerno.
Scene three has Elsie and Henry traveling to Salerno, although Henry is disturbed by the fate that awaits Elsie. Their band of pilgrims is joined by a friar, who is really Lucifer in disguise. Lucifer gloats over Elsie's fate, and Elsie and Henry find comfort in each other.
The couple arrive in Salerno in scene four, where Lucifer reappears disguised as Friar Angelo, a doctor of the medical school. Despite the opposition of the Prince, who now declares that he intended to do no more than test her constancy, Elsie persists in her resolve to die for him. Lucifer plans to claim Elsie's soul for his own rather than let it rise to Heaven. He draws Elsie into an inner chamber, but at the last minute, Henry breaks down the door and rescues her from the "doctor" and eternal damnation.
Miraculously healed, Prince Henry marries the Elsie and is restored to his rightful place. The final scene opens with Ursula receiving news that her daughter is not dead. Henry and Elsie are then shown on their wedding day. An epilogue provides the moral and explains that Prince Henry's malady was cured by love. Elsie's devotion is compared to the course of a mountain brook that cools and fertilises the arid plain.
[edit] Musical numbers
Prologue
- Nocte surgentes (Hasten, hasten)
Scene 1
- I cannot sleep
- All hail, Prince Henry
- Behold it here
- Drink, drink, and thy soul shall sink
Scene 2
- Slowly, slowly up the wall
- Evening Hymn
- Who was it said ‘Amen’?
- I heard Him call
- My Redeemer and my Lord
- My life is little
Scene 3
- Onward and onward
- Here am I too
- It is the sea
- The night is calm and cloudless
Scene 4
- My guests approach
- Prince Henry enters
- O pure in heart
- Weep not, my friends
- Come with me, this Way
Scene 5
- Who is it coming?
- Virgin, who lovest the poor
Scene 6
- We are alone
- Dear Elise
- In life’s delight
Choral Epilogue
- God sent His messenger, the rain
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Jacobs, Arthur (1984). Arthur Sullivan – A Victorian Musician. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Sullivan, Herbert & Flower, Newman (1927). Sir Arthur Sullivan. His Life, Letters & Diaries. London: Cassell & Company Ltd.
- Introduction to the piece at the Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
