Critical Reception
After the first performance, 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.The Observer, quoting from the text, said, "'The deed divine shall through all ages burn and shine.' And so shall The Golden Legend." The Manchester Guardian was more cautious, praising the music but suggesting that comparison with Mendelssohn's St. Paul, played in the second half of the concert, was not to Sullivan's advantage. The Times dismissed Longfellow's poem as insipid but praised the music, calling it "a work which, if not of genius in the strict sense of the word, is at least likely to survive till our long-expected English Beethoven appears on the scene." A later writer commented that the judgment of The Times was shrewd, "for Sullivan's serious music lasted only until Elgar's over-mounted it." Nevertheless, Elgar "always spoke with great feeling and respect for Sullivan, and admired The Golden Legend."
When The Golden Legend was recorded in full in 2001, Edward Greenfield wrote in The Gramophone:
It is astonishing to discover that for a decade or so after it first appeared in 1886‚ this oratorio … overtook Elijah as the second most popular oratorio in Britain‚ with Handel's Messiah alone clocking up more performances. Certainly the opening is most striking‚ quite unlike what one would expect of the composer of G&S operettas: first you hear unaccompanied chimes that anticipate the opening of Puccini's Suor Angelica‚ leading almost at once into storm music that owes much to Wagner's Flying Dutchman‚ with the key indeterminate ... The Victorian soppiness of the story remains a barrier. Elsie's prayer‚ for example‚ is glutinous in its sentiment.... One can readily understand why after the Victorians' early enthusiasm the piece ran into total neglect.Read more about this topic: The Golden Legend (cantata)
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