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. It premiered in Worcester Cathedral on 10 September 1869 as part of the Three Choirs Festival.
The work was Sullivan's first oratorio, and it was the first sacred music setting of this parable, preceding Claude Debussy's 1884 cantata L'Enfant prodigue and Sergei Prokofiev's Op. 46, "The Prodigal Son."
Read more about The Prodigal Son (Sullivan): Background, Musical Numbers, Recordings
Famous quotes containing the words prodigal and/or son:
“Go bind thou up young dangling apricots
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight.
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner
Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays
That look too lofty in our commonwealth.
All must be even in our government.
You thus employed, I will go root away
The noisome weeds which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 4:3.
Tempter to Jesus.