Background
Sullivan was still in his 20s when he composed this piece, which, like many of Sullivan's early works, shows the strong musical influence of Felix Mendelssohn. A rising star of British music, he had already produced his popular incidental music to Shakespeare's The Tempest, his Irish Symphony, a Cello concerto, his Overture in C (In Memoriam), The Masque at Kenilworth, his first ballet, L'Île Enchantée and two comic operas, Cox and Box and The Contrabandista, as well as other orchestral pieces and numerous hymns and songs. Therefore, it was no surprise when Sullivan received a commission to compose an oratorio for the Three Choirs Festival.
In the Victorian era, large-scale choral works with orchestra were a staple of British musical culture, including oratorios in the mould of Handel and Mendelssohn. Except for theatre pieces, choral works were the only genre in which Sullivan continued to compose regularly after the early 1870s.
Read more about this topic: The Prodigal Son (Sullivan)
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