The Light of the World (Sullivan)
Encyclopedia
The Light of the World is an oratorio
composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan
. Sullivan wrote the libretto
with the assistance of George Grove
, based on the New Testament
. The story of the oratorio narrates the whole life of Christ
, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet. The oratorio was inspired by William Holman Hunt
's popular 1853-54 painting, The Light of the World.
The work was first performed at the Birmingham Festival on 27 August 1873 and was the composer's second oratorio, the first being The Prodigal Son
(1869).
, England, in September 1872. Composing the oratorio occupied Sullivan during much of 1873. Sullivan's introduction to the work says that, unlike Handel
's Messiah
, which focuses on Christ's "spiritual idea", or J. S. Bach's Passion music
, which focuses on Christ's suffering, the purpose of The Light of the World is to "set forth the human aspect of the life of our Lord on earth, exemplifying it by some of the actual incidents in his career, which bear specially upon His attributes of Preacher, Healer and Prophet."
Sullivan made several visits to Birmingham to rehearse the chorus. During the rehearsal period, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh
(a son of Queen Victoria
), announced his engagement to the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Alexander II. The Duke and Duchess married in 1874. Sullivan was a friend of the Duke's, and upon learning of the betrothal, he sought and received permission to dedicate the oratorio to Grand Duchess Marie.
The Duke was present at the premiere at the Birmingham Festival on 27 August 1873. The soloists were Thérèse Tietjens
, Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
, John Sims Reeves and Charles Santley
. As Sullivan appeared on the platform to conduct his new work, he was met with a "hearty and unanimous greeting.... The last outgrowth of his genius leaves far behind all that preceded it", reported The Times
. The President of the Festival, the Earl of Shrewsbury, publicly congratulated the composer at the end of the performance, amidst the cheers of the audience.
Sullivan was presented with a "handsome silver cup and a considerable sum of money" after the premiere, and he derived income from the sale of scores. Nevertheless, his earnings from the oratorio amounted to a small sum compared with the fortune that he would later make from composing the Savoy opera
s with W. S. Gilbert
. After its premiere in Birmingham, performances followed in other towns and cities. The Light of the World was widely performed throughout Great Britain and elsewhere during Sullivan's lifetime. Since then it has seldom been performed, and there is no professional recording of the oratorio.
wrote: "The oratorio is one of imagination, of not only clever ideas, but of really devotional religious thought. The orchestra is handled throughout in a manner which only one who is fully acquainted with each instrument, its individual capabilities, and its effect in combination, is able to appreciate. The instrumentation is never obtrusive, but it is always delicate and expressive, while many orchestral passages are notable for the beauty of the scoring. The vocal parts, solo and choral... exhibit great talent in treatment, and, considering the nature of the subject, are written with considerable variety. In conclusion The Light of the World is a great production.
Similarly, The Standard commented, "After due reflection the general opinion is that in his oratorio Mr. Arthur Sullivan has enriched the world's musical library with a fine work, distinctly representative of the modern school of composition, and calculated to exist in that sphere where it holds a prominent position as a specimen of the new type of oratorio, the dignity of which it upholds. Considering the difficulties of precedent with which Mr. Sullivan had to deal, in Handel's Messiah and Bach's Passion Music, not to mention Mendelssohn's unfinished Christus, he may be said to have entered the lists against an array of giants. To say that in the face of these he has held his own ground, if he has not encroached on theirs, is to bestow praise of the highest significance.... The Light of the World... even steers clear of that magnetic rock, Mendelssohn
, upon which so many fair and well-freighted barks have been lured to their doom.
While Charles Gounod
described the work as a masterpiece, by 1899, reviewers no longer put it in the same class as the greatest oratorios: "The Light of the World may not take rank with the highest examples of oratorio art, but its undoubted merits entitle it to an honoured and intimate companionship with its more favoured brethren." Subsequent critical assessments have not been even this kind. "Only rarely in the course of this ponderous two and three-quarter hour progress does the vital composer of The Tempest
and the 'Irish
' Symphony surface", observed Chrisopher Webber in reviewing a recording in 2000. Another reviewer found a middle ground: "The main weakness of The Light of the World [is] the lifeless music given to the baritone (Jesus) part. ... Study of this score revealed ... many fine choruses, brilliant solos, and beautiful pastoral passages. While not of a consistency or individuality of The Martyr of Antioch
or The Golden Legend, The Light of the World has more than enough virtues to justify a professional revival."
THE FIRST PART
Bethlehem
Nazareth — In the Synagogue
Lazarus
The Way to Jerusalem
THE SECOND PART
Jerusalem
At the Sepulchre
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
composed in 1873 by Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
. Sullivan wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
with the assistance of George Grove
George Grove
Sir George Grove, CB was an English writer on music, known as the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians....
, based on the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. The story of the oratorio narrates the whole life of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, focusing on his deeds on Earth as preacher, healer and prophet. The oratorio was inspired by William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Biography:...
's popular 1853-54 painting, The Light of the World.
The work was first performed at the Birmingham Festival on 27 August 1873 and was the composer's second oratorio, the first being The Prodigal Son
The Prodigal Son (Sullivan)
The Prodigal Son is an oratorio by Arthur Sullivan with text taken from the parable of the same name in the Gospel of Luke. It features chorus with Soprano, Contralto, Tenor and Bass solos...
(1869).
Background
Historian Michael Ainger suggests that the idea for the libretto of The Light of the World came to Sullivan when he viewed a chapel near NorwichNorwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
, England, in September 1872. Composing the oratorio occupied Sullivan during much of 1873. Sullivan's introduction to the work says that, unlike Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
, which focuses on Christ's "spiritual idea", or J. S. Bach's Passion music
Passion music
In church music, Passion is a term for sung musical settings, normally at least partly choral, of the Gospel texts covering the Passion of Jesus, the events leading up to the Crucifixion of Jesus, and emphasising his suffering...
, which focuses on Christ's suffering, the purpose of The Light of the World is to "set forth the human aspect of the life of our Lord on earth, exemplifying it by some of the actual incidents in his career, which bear specially upon His attributes of Preacher, Healer and Prophet."
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
(a son of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
), announced his engagement to the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Alexander II. The Duke and Duchess married in 1874. Sullivan was a friend of the Duke's, and upon learning of the betrothal, he sought and received permission to dedicate the oratorio to Grand Duchess Marie.
The Duke was present at the premiere at the Birmingham Festival on 27 August 1873. The soloists were Thérèse Tietjens
Thérèse Johanne Alexandra Tietjens
Thérèse Johanne Alexandra Tietjens was a leading opera and oratorio soprano of German birth but, according to some sources, Hungarian extraction. She made her career chiefly in London during the 1860s and 1870s, but her unbroken sequence of musical triumphs in the British capital was terminated...
, Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini , also known as Zelia Gilbert or by her stage name Trebelli, was a French opera singer.Mme Trebelli's artistry was greatly admired by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote about her a number of times in his various reviews...
, John Sims Reeves and Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
. As Sullivan appeared on the platform to conduct his new work, he was met with a "hearty and unanimous greeting.... The last outgrowth of his genius leaves far behind all that preceded it", reported The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. The President of the Festival, the Earl of Shrewsbury, publicly congratulated the composer at the end of the performance, amidst the cheers of the audience.
Sullivan was presented with a "handsome silver cup and a considerable sum of money" after the premiere, and he derived income from the sale of scores. Nevertheless, his earnings from the oratorio amounted to a small sum compared with the fortune that he would later make from composing the Savoy opera
Savoy opera
The Savoy Operas denote a style of comic opera that developed in Victorian England in the late 19th century, with W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan as the original and most successful practitioners. The name is derived from the Savoy Theatre, which impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte built to house...
s with W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
. After its premiere in Birmingham, performances followed in other towns and cities. The Light of the World was widely performed throughout Great Britain and elsewhere during Sullivan's lifetime. Since then it has seldom been performed, and there is no professional recording of the oratorio.
Critical reaction
Sullivan took on a difficult task in retracing the ground covered by Handel's Messiah. The press was, initially, enthusiastic. The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
wrote: "The oratorio is one of imagination, of not only clever ideas, but of really devotional religious thought. The orchestra is handled throughout in a manner which only one who is fully acquainted with each instrument, its individual capabilities, and its effect in combination, is able to appreciate. The instrumentation is never obtrusive, but it is always delicate and expressive, while many orchestral passages are notable for the beauty of the scoring. The vocal parts, solo and choral... exhibit great talent in treatment, and, considering the nature of the subject, are written with considerable variety. In conclusion The Light of the World is a great production.
Similarly, The Standard commented, "After due reflection the general opinion is that in his oratorio Mr. Arthur Sullivan has enriched the world's musical library with a fine work, distinctly representative of the modern school of composition, and calculated to exist in that sphere where it holds a prominent position as a specimen of the new type of oratorio, the dignity of which it upholds. Considering the difficulties of precedent with which Mr. Sullivan had to deal, in Handel's Messiah and Bach's Passion Music, not to mention Mendelssohn's unfinished Christus, he may be said to have entered the lists against an array of giants. To say that in the face of these he has held his own ground, if he has not encroached on theirs, is to bestow praise of the highest significance.... The Light of the World... even steers clear of that magnetic rock, Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn
Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...
, upon which so many fair and well-freighted barks have been lured to their doom.
While Charles Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
described the work as a masterpiece, by 1899, reviewers no longer put it in the same class as the greatest oratorios: "The Light of the World may not take rank with the highest examples of oratorio art, but its undoubted merits entitle it to an honoured and intimate companionship with its more favoured brethren." Subsequent critical assessments have not been even this kind. "Only rarely in the course of this ponderous two and three-quarter hour progress does the vital composer of The Tempest
The Tempest (Sullivan)
The Tempest incidental music, Op. 1, is a set of movements for Shakespeare's play composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1861 and expanded in 1862. This was Sullivan's first major piece of composition, and its success quickly brought him to the attention of the musical establishment in...
and the 'Irish
Symphony in E, Irish
The Symphony in E, first performed on March 10, 1866, was the only symphony composed by Arthur Sullivan. It is frequently called the 'Irish' Symphony.There are four movements:*Andante – Allegro, ma non troppo vivace*Andante espressivo*Allegretto...
' Symphony surface", observed Chrisopher Webber in reviewing a recording in 2000. Another reviewer found a middle ground: "The main weakness of The Light of the World [is] the lifeless music given to the baritone (Jesus) part. ... Study of this score revealed ... many fine choruses, brilliant solos, and beautiful pastoral passages. While not of a consistency or individuality of The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch
The Martyr of Antioch is an oratorio by the English composer Arthur Sullivan. It was first performed on 15 October 1880 at the triennial Leeds Music Festival, having been composed specifically for that event...
or The Golden Legend, The Light of the World has more than enough virtues to justify a professional revival."
Musical numbers
- No. 1 Prologue (Chorus) – There shall come forth a rod
Bethlehem
- No. 2 Introduction and Recitative – There were shepherds
- No. 3 Chorus of Angels – Glory to God
- No. 4 Chorus of Shepherds – Let us now go even unto Bethlehem
- No. 5 Solo (Bass) – Blessed art thou
- No. 6 Air (SopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
) – My soul doth magnify the Lord - No. 7 Sullivan omitted this number
- No. 8 Chorus of Shepherds – The whole earth is at rest
- No. 9 Solo (ContraltoContraltoContralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
) – Arise and take the young child - No. 10 Solo (Soprano) & Chorus – In Rama was there a voice heard
- No. 11 Air (TenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
) – Refrain thy voice from weeping - No. 12 Solo (Contralto) – Arise and take the young child
- No. 13 Chorus – I will pour my spirit
Nazareth — In the Synagogue
- No. 14 Solo (BaritoneBaritoneBaritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
) & Chorus – The spirit of the Lord - No. 15 Quintet – Doubtless thou art our Father
- No. 16 Solo (Baritone) – Blessed are they that are persecuted
- No. 17 Chorus – He maketh the sun to rise
Lazarus
- No. 18 Duet (Tenor & Baritone) – Lord, behold he whom thou lovest
- No. 19 Solo (Contralto) & Chorus – Weep ye not for the dead
- No. 20 Scena (Soprano & Baritone) – Lord, if thou hadst been here
- No. 21 Chorus – Behold how He loved him
- No. 22 Solo (Baritone) – Said I not unto thee
- No. 23 Chorus – The grave cannot praise thee
The Way to Jerusalem
- No. 24 Solos – Perceive ye how
- No. 25 Chorus of Children – Hosanna to the Son of David
- No. 26 Air (Soprano) – Tell ye the daughter of Zion
- No. 27 Chorus of Disciples – Blessed be the Kingdom
- No. 28 Trio & Chorus – Hosanna to the Son of David
THE SECOND PART
Jerusalem
- No. 29 Overture
- No. 30 Solo (Baritone) – When the Son of Man
- No. 31 Solos & Chorus – Is this not He whom they seek to kill
- No. 32 Chorus of Women – The hour is come
- No. 33 Solo (Baritone) – Daughters of Jerusalem
- No. 34 Quartet (Unaccompanied) – Yea, though I walk through the valley
- No. 35 Chorus – Men and brethren
At the Sepulchre
- No. 36 Recitative (Soprano) – Where have they laid Him
- No. 37 Aria (Soprano) – Lord, why hidest thy face?
- No. 38 Recitative – Why weepest thou?
- No. 39 Aria (Contralto) – The Lord is risen
- No. 40 Chorus – The Lord is risen
- No. 41 Solo (Tenor) – If ye be risen
- No. 42 Chorus – Him hath God exalted
External links
- Midi files and text to The Light of the World
- Links to several reviews of the piece in The Times, during the 1870s, as well as other information and links
- Shepherd, Marc. "The Light of the World" (2003) at A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography
- Walker, Raymond J. "Sullivan: CDs & Scores" – Description of available recording and score
- Webber, Christopher. Review of 2000 recording for MusicWeb
- Ensell, Paul. Review of 2000 recording for A Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, with postscript by Marc Shepherd