The Masque at Kenilworth

Lore & Background

Kenilworth is one of Arthur Sullivan's earliest choral works, coming only three years after he completed his studies. In 1863, Sullivan and Chorley were collaborating on an opera, The Sapphire Necklace, that they had hoped would be produced by the Royal Italian Opera House at Covent Garden. When that opera was turned down, Sir Michael Costa, chief conductor of the triennial Birmingham Musical Festival, arranged for Chorley to write the libretto for the masque as a commission for Sullivan. Chorley's libretto draws on the description in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott, of the visit of Queen Elizabeth and her 400-member entourage to Kenilworth Castle in 1575, as well as other contemporary accounts and fiction.

Reader's Guide

The 22-year-old Sullivan composed the piece over the summer of 1864 and conducted the première on 8 September 1864, which was generally well received. However, The Times was disappointed in the young composer's missing so 'golden a chance' to provide something of 'more dignity' for such a grand event and dismissed the music as merely 'trivial prettiness'. It noted, however, that had the piece been written for a less exceptional occasion, it 'would be welcomed as a very agreeable work, unambitious in plan, unpretending in style, but at the same time, lively, tuneful, fresh, and extremely well-written both for voices and instruments.' After two further performances, Sullivan withdrew the piece and refused to allow it to be performed. There were also three known complete performances of the masque around the first anniversary of the composer's death and additional performances in 1903 and 1907. The 'Shakespeare Duet' and 'Brisk Dance' were performed independently, with the composer's permission, on many occasions and continued to be performed well into the 20th century.

Did You Know?

• The text includes an anachronistic scene from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, even though Shakespeare was a young boy in 1575.
• Chorley faced criticism over a misquote of The Merchant of Venice: his line reads 'Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubum' instead of Shakespeare's 'immortal souls'.
• The soloists at the premiere included Helen Lemmens-Sherrington (soprano) and Charles Santley (baritone), both praised by The Times.
• The piece was commissioned on the recommendation of Sir Michael Costa, who had composed a ballet on the subject of Kenilworth in 1831.

Origins: A Chain of Connections and Setbacks

Sullivan's path to Kenilworth was shaped by a sequence of personal encounters and professional disappointments. In early 1862, the critic Henry Fothergill Chorley hosted a private recital of Sullivan's incidental music for The Tempest at his home. George Grove, then Secretary to The Crystal Palace, attended and was so struck by the young composer's work that he arranged a public performance there, which became a major success and launched Sullivan's career. Sullivan and Chorley subsequently began a collaborative partnership on songs and other compositions. In 1863, they were working together on an opera called The Sapphire Necklace, which they submitted to the Royal Italian Opera House at Covent Garden. Sullivan also met the house's music director, Sir Michael Costa, expressing his eagerness to learn about opera and asking to attend rehearsals. Costa hired him as an organist and began sending him composing commissions. When Covent Garden rejected The Sapphire Necklace in 1864, Costa—perhaps as a consolation—commissioned a cantata for the Birmingham Musical Festival and arranged for Chorley to write the libretto.

The 1575 Masque and Chorley's Libretto

The cantata attempts to reconstruct a masque that the dramatist George Gascoigne had planned for Queen Elizabeth's fourth and final visit to Kenilworth Castle in 1575. Elizabeth had gifted the castle to her favourite courtier Robert Dudley in 1563, and Dudley spent an extraordinary £1000 per day over 19 days staging pageants, fireworks, banquets, and entertainments in a bid to persuade her to marry him. The final planned event was a masque urging the Queen to accept his proposal, but rain forced her to ride away, ignoring pleas to remain. Chorley's libretto draws heavily on Sir Walter Scott's 1821 novel Kenilworth, along with other contemporary accounts and fiction. The text features mythical figures joyfully praising Elizabeth on a summer's night: the Lady of the Lake rising from the water, the ancient Greek poet Arion arriving on a dolphin, and a staged performance of the summer-night scene from The Merchant of Venice. Chorley acknowledged the anachronism—Shakespeare was merely a young boy in 1575—but noted that Scott had similarly used Shakespearean material. He also faced criticism for a misquotation in that scene, rendering Shakespeare's 'immortal souls' as 'immortal sounds.'

Premiere at the Birmingham Festival

The twenty-two-year-old Sullivan composed the cantata over the summer of 1864 and travelled to Birmingham in early September for the first rehearsal. He conducted the premiere himself on 8 September at the Birmingham Festival. The solo cast included Helen Lemmens-Sherrington as the Lady of the Lake, Elizabeth Annie Palmer in the contralto role, Charles Santley as baritone, and William Hayman Cummings as tenor—a last-minute replacement for the ailing Mario. The reception was generally favourable, with The Times singling out the performances of Lemmens-Sherrington and Santley for particular praise. However, the paper also expressed disappointment, feeling Sullivan had squandered a golden opportunity to produce something of greater dignity befitting such a grand occasion, calling the music little more than trivial prettiness. Yet even in its criticism, The Times conceded that on a less exceptional occasion the piece would be received as an agreeable, lively, and tuneful work, unambitious in scope yet extremely well-crafted for both voices and instruments.

Withdrawal, Excerpts, and Posthumous Performances

After the Birmingham premiere, Kenilworth received only two further complete performances during Sullivan's lifetime: one at The Crystal Palace on 12 November 1864 and another by the Dublin Philharmonic Society in 1868. Sullivan then withdrew the piece entirely and refused to permit any further performances of the full work. Nevertheless, the cantata's most celebrated movement, the duet 'How sweet the Moonlight sleeps,' along with the 'Brisk Dance,' enjoyed an independent life on concert programmes. Sullivan permitted these excerpts to be performed, and they continued to appear in recitals and concerts well into the twentieth century. Around the first anniversary of the composer's death, three known complete performances of the masque took place, and additional full performances followed in 1903 and 1907. Thus, while Sullivan himself chose to retire the complete work from the stage, its most memorable musical moments endured as standalone pieces, and the full cantata found a modest but persistent place in the choral repertoire of the decades following his passing.

Gallery