The Martyr of Antioch is a choral work described as a "Sacred Musical Drama"Parry, William. Sullivan between Secularism and Christianity in SullivanPerspektiven, Essen: Oldib-Verlag, 2012, p. 140; and Gordon-Powell and Wright, vol. 1, preface, p. ix 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. Sullivan was musical director of the Leeds festival in 1880 and conducted the performance.
The Martyr of Antioch is based on the 1822 epic poem by the Rev. Henry Hart Milman concerning the martyrdom of St. Margaret of Antioch at the end of the 3rd century. Sullivan's friend and collaborator, the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, assisted him in adapting the libretto from Milman's poem. Gilbert and Sullivan's fifth opera, The Pirates of Penzance, had opened in December 1879. At the Leeds festival of 1886, Sullivan would premiere an even more successful choral work, The Golden Legend.
The work is rarely performed today, though two recordings are available.
Background In January 1878, the secretary of the triennial Leeds Music Festival's Provisional Committee wrote to Arthur Sullivan to encourage him to compose an oratorio for the 1880 Leeds festival: "I need hardly tell you with what completeness, force, and exceptional choral power we should perform your work, for our recent production of Macfarren's Joseph will be fresh in your memory, if you read or heard the universal praise bestowed upon the Leeds Festival Performance." Sullivan was in France at the time, where he was trying to recover from illness. On his return in March, he answered that he could compose a shorter piece of an hour or an hour and a half, but not a full-length oratorio. The committee accepted his offer.Howarth, Paul. "The Commissioning of The Martyr of Antioch", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 20 December 2017 Sullivan's reluctance to compose a full-length oratorio on more than two years' notice casts some doubt on his willingness to devote himself to serious composition. The historian Michael Ainger noted: "He was still only thirty-five, but most of his serious work already lay behind him."Ainger, p. 153
At first, Sullivan intended to prepare a libretto himself based on the biblical David and Jonathan story. He struggled with this task at length and worried that the best bible verses for an oratorio on this subject had already been used by oratorio writers, and his use of them would provoke comparisons with their work. When a suggestion was made that, in view of the economic and political situation in England, the festival be postponed for a year, Sullivan wrote in a letter dated 30 June 1879: "If you carry out the idea of postponing the Leeds festival till 1881, it will be a very great relief to me and a weight off my mind, because, in consequence of my approaching visit to America [where Gilbert and Sullivan would premiere The Pirates of Penzance], I should have very little time to write for the next six months, and I have been seriously perplexed how to manage it." Ultimately, the festival was not postponed. It was announced in June 1880 that Sullivan had turned to an 1822 poem by the Rev Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868), The Martyr of Antioch, as the subject for the oratorio, and that W. S. Gilbert would assist him in adapting the libretto. The poem concerns the martyrdom of St. Margaret of Antioch at the end of the 3rd century.Shepherd, Marc. , The Gilbert & Sullivan Discography, 24 December 2003, accessed 21 December 2017Milman was then a Professor of Poetry at Oxford University and would later be the Dean of St Paul's. Wright, "Introduction", p. ix
Gilbert helped Sullivan to adapt Milman's poem to make it into a libretto suitable for the work. The libretto cuts text considerably, focusing the story more narrowly on the title character, and a new character, Julia, is introduced as a representative of the chorus of sun-worshippers.Wright, "Introduction", pp. x–xi Milman's sons authorised Sullivan to say that the alterations "had been made with judgment and good taste, and in complete accordance with the spirit of the original work"."Review: The Martyr of Antioch", The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 16 October 1880 Sullivan acknowledged Gilbert's contributions in his preface to 'the published score, attributing to Gilbert "the change which in one or two cases (marked with an asterisk [numbers 2, 8 and 10, and also number 15, which is missing the asterisk."]Wright notes: "Gilbert seems in fact to have composed four original lyrics, some de novo, some drawing freely on Milman: ... The first three of these are marked in all libretto sources with an asterisk, attributing them to him; the last [No. 15] is not, but this must be an error as the lyric is original and could only have come from Gilbert. Apart from these lyrics, the extent of Gilbert’s 'suggestions' must remain a matter of speculation." Wright, "Introduction", p. x) has been necessary from blank verse to rhyme; and for these and many valuable suggestions, he returns Mr. Gilbert his warm acknowledgements."Howarth, Paul. "Gilbert’s Contribution to the Libretto", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 21 December 2017 In gratitude for his assistance, Sullivan gave Gilbert a silver cup inscribed "W.S. Gilbert from his friend Arthur Sullivan. Leeds Festival 1880. The Martyr of Antioch." In return, Gilbert wrote to Sullivan on 3 December: Dear Sullivan, It always seemed to me that my particularly humble services in connection with the Leeds festival had received far more than their meed of acknowledgement in your preamble to the libretto – and it most certainly never occurred to me to look for any other reward than the honour of being associated, however remotely and unworthily, in a success which, I suppose, will endure until music itself shall die. Pray believe that of the many substantial advantages that have resulted to me from our association, this last is, and always will be, the most highly prized."Jacobs, p. 146
In January 1880, the festival committee, after considering other conductors, asked Sullivan to conduct the Leeds festival, which was to run from 13 to 16 October. This was a popular choice, as one columnist wrote, "for an English Festival we are to have an English conductor. Too long have we in this country bowed down to foreign talent, even when it has been far inferior to English talent."Howarth, Paul. "Sullivan's First Leeds Festival", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 20 December 2017 When Sullivan stood before the festival chorus of 306 voices for his first rehearsal in Leeds on 4 June 1880, they greeted him with cheers and applause. On 31 August he first rehearsed The Martyr of Antioch at Leeds. He outlined the narrative of the new work to the chorus before proceeding with the rehearsal, which was reported in a local newspaper: [T]he warm praise that the composer-conductor bestowed on the singers at the conclusion of the rehearsal was well deserved. ... These pleasant congratulations were not all on one side, for after several of the choruses the vocalists manifested their appreciation of the composer's success and talent.
Performance and aftermath The premiere of The Martyr of Antioch took place on 15 October 1880 at Leeds Town Hall, employing impressive forces: The orchestra numbered 111 instrumentalists, and there were 306 choristers. The audience numbered more than 2,000 including Sullivan's mother and his friend, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was President of the festival. The oratorio formed the first half of the programme that morning, followed by a performance of Beethoven's Mass in C and Schubert's Song of Miriam in the second half.Wright, "Introduction", p. xi The Leeds Mercurys reviewer wrote: [T]he cheers which greeted the arrival of Mr. Sullivan were renewed with still more vigour and enthusiasm at the close of his new work. ... The whole assemblage, indeed, joined in a hearty tribute of praise. ... [T]he strength of The Martyr of Antioch lies in its beautiful Pagan choruses, so full of character and colour; in the first and last airs of Margarita...; in the Funeral Music of the Christians; in the love music of Olybius; and, with reference to the entire work, in charmingly varied and appropriately coloured orchestration. ... [T]he dramatic portions of the Cantata ... are inferior in treatment, and consequently in result, to those of a lyrical nature. Hence a comparative want of effect in the scene between Margarita and her father, and between the same person and her lover, when revelation is made of a change of faith, meaning nothing less than death to the convert. ... This opinion, however, is based upon purely dramatic considerations. Regarding the situation from a musical point of view, there is nothing in the work we would willingly have sacrificed to make room for dramatic expansion. ... A word is certainly called for by Mr. Sullivan's orchestrations. Few living musicians know better than our composer how to employ the resources of instrumentation. ... He uses the orchestra, as not abusing it, charming attentive ears by touches of delicate fancy in form and pleasing cultured taste by a harmony of colour. ... All this the scoring of The Martyr of Antioch proves beyond dispute. It never wearies by sameness or repels by eccentricity."Review of the first performance of The Martyr of Antioch", The Leeds Mercury, 16 October 1880, reprinted in The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 21 December 2017
Other critics agreed that the music had much to admire, but the work failed to achieve sufficient dramatic effect; some mentioned a lack of sufficient reverence, as the Pagans are treated sympathetically in both text and music."The Leeds Festival", The Times, 16 October 1880 and Excerpts from several reviews of the original performance of The Martyr of Antioch, all reprinted at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 21 December 2017; and Wright, "Introduction", pp. xi–xiii The performance of the cantata at the festival under Sullivan's baton earned praise, as did his performance as musical director of the festival, and he was invited back to conduct the next six Leeds festivals. At the Leeds festival of 1886, Sullivan would premiere an even more successful choral work, The Golden Legend.Shepherd, Marc. , The Gilbert & Sullivan Discography, 24 December 2003, accessed 21 December 2017
Sullivan conducted the cantata two months later in London, on 11 December 1880, at The Crystal Palace, together with his overture In Memoriam. The piece was again a popular success and mostly well received by the critics, with the same reservations as they had expressed at its premiere. It was repeated occasionally over the ensuing years, but after the introduction of The Golden Legend in 1886, The Martyr was heard only rarely.Wright, "Introduction", p. xiii Like many of Sullivan's other major choral pieces, it is, or at least was considered, theatrical in conception.The Morning Post, 16 October 1880, p. 2; and Wright, "Introduction", p. xii In 1898, it was mounted as an opera by the Carl Rosa Opera Company; Sullivan made a few changes to the piece to adapt it as an opera.Wright, "Introduction", p. xiiv The piece was performed for the first time in the United States with orchestra in 2018 by Utopia Opera, conducted by William Remmers."Utopia Opera Presents the US Premiere of Arthur Sullivan's Oratorio The Martyr of Antioch", BroadwayWorld.com, 16 April 2018; and Shepherd, Marc. "The Martyr of Antioch", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 97, Summer 2018, p. 14
Characters and original soloists Heathens:Spark, p. 177 Olybius, the Roman Prefect (tenor) – Edward Lloyd Callias, the Priest of Apollo and father of Margarita (baritone) – Frederic King Julia, a worshipper of the Sun (contralto) – Janet Monach Patey Maidens and youths, worshippers of the Sun (Apollo)
Christians: