In a change of pace, the CT Gilbert and Sullivan Society (CG&SS), PO Box 2152, Middletown, CT 06457 (800) 866-1606, performed Sir Arthur Sullivan's setting of The Golden Legend, the epic poem by Longfellow, on May 15, 1999, at the North Guilford Congregational Church. A encore performance was offered on February 5, 2000 at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Rt. 66, 47 West High St., East Hampton, CT. Stephen Turnbull of England's Sir Arthur Sullivan Society (SASS) took note of this performance and informed the CG&SS that ours was the first offering of The Golden Legend anywhere in the world in the year 2000. This performance was also warmly reviewed by Roger Straub for Hometown News Publications.
I have a family picture and music passages taken from the performance further down on this page following the story summary.
Return to the Shalvoy's Gilbert and Sullivan Plays webpages
This cantata presents a more serious side of Sullivan. He was as well known in his day for his many serious works of which this is but one. Longfellow for his part had adapted the old German legend in the mid 1850's as part of his Christus trilogy of epic poems. The actual poem is quite long - Sullivan's work captured just the highlights of the story. Long passages dealing with Prince Henry's journey to Salerno and describing his time with traveling monks while en route are not included. Longfellow's goal in the poem was to show life in the 12th century Church, as well as to tell a moving story, of course.
Golden Legend Plot Summary and Full Libretto
The
Golden Legend - Page by Page
Pictures
(1) Four of us (Karol Ann, Joanna, Becky, and Richard, respectively) sang in this performance as can be seen in this picture taken that evening. The attire for the performance being black and white we aren't nearly as colorful as in the plays.
(2) NEW!! February, 2000 Performance This picture shows the performers (well some of them) before the show. Jerry Palmer and Kathleen Thompson are in the seated in front.
I have finally gotten a copy of the recording of the show on cassette. Being a live recording there are the usual coughs and such and the timpani comes across loudly sometimes, but otherwise it sounds good. I made MP3 clips of some of the choral sections. I limited the selection lengths in some cases and broke the Epilog into two pieces to try to keep the files down to merely huge sizes. Click the passage's link to hear the music or right click the selection's link to save the file to disk for playback later.
I discuss some details on MP3 players in another link. I used the Music Match recorder to make these files and have had fine playback results using this free program.
1) O Gladsome Light, first section, 658 kB file size 2) The Night is Calm, 976 kB 3) O Pure in Heart, 612 kB 4) Choral Epilog, Part 1, 1252 kB 5) Choral Epilog, Part 2, 1410 kB The deed divineSound Clips !
Local villagers greet the end of the day. Prince Henry is about to meet Elsie.
Prince Henry and Elsie stop by the sea during their journey to Salerno.
Elsie affirms her desire to die so that Prince Henry may live.
The men and then the women summarize God's work in this tale.
The chorus joins together (using the text below) to make a dramatic end to the work.
Is written in characters of gold
That never shall grow old,
But through all ages
Burn and shine!
