The years immediately succeeding the production of "The Martyr of Antioch" must, I think, have been the happiest of the composer's life.
The illness from which he occasionally suffered from early manhood, had not taken sufficient hold on him to prevent his thorough enjoyment of life and all its various attractions, and so, with abundant means and ample time at his disposal, he was able to enjoy, with complete serenity, any recreation or amusement that appealed to him. His happy temperament prompted him to take the advantages that good fortune had thrown in his way, and to this I attribute the fact of his being able to reach even the moderate age to which he attained.
In this way the years passed rapidly, continued successes at the Savoy ever augmenting both fame and fortune, until, when the calls for another work of serious importance from his pen began to assume an importunate form, he had scarcely realised how much time had elapsed since "The Martyr of Antioch" was composed.
In answer to the urgent request of the committee, Sir Arthur Sullivan undertook to write a work for the Leeds Festival of 1886, and accordingly, turning to the experienced skill of Mr. Joseph Bennett to supply him with the "book," he, at length settled himself to the composition of "The Golden Legend."
The subject was exceptionally well chosen to draw upon his well-known power of dramatic writing. The poem of the great American writer,
Henry W. Longfellow, from which Mr. Bennett arranged his libretto, is full of picturesque and fanciful imagination, and furnished the composer plentifully with scenes that enabled him to exhibit his genius at its greatest strength.
The prologue was the medium of displaying his descriptive, as was the epilogue of his choral writing, at its best, and what this conveys can only, perhaps, be fully appreciated by the skilled musician. I need only say that they were masterly displays. A striking feature in the work, is the quaint and original manner in which the character of Lucifer is portrayed. The music, with which he is invariably accompanied is of a semi-sacred character, contrapuntal in construction, but which is, at once, grotesque and eminently fitted to mark the sardonic humour of the character that Longfellow so powerfully painted.
The numbers that are, probably, the most popular are those for the soprano and contralto, "My Redeemer and my Lord," "Virgin who lovest the poor and lowly," and the hymn, "O gladsome Light."
The reception accorded to "The Golden Legend" on its presentation, like that of "The Martyr of Antioch," was enthusiastic in the extreme. It has retained its popularity, and is usually conceded to be his masterpiece. It is sung wherever the English language is spoken.