Described as "A Sacred Musical Drama", The Martyr of Antioch was composed for the Leeds Triennial Music Festival of 1880 and performed there for the first time on the morning of 15 October, forming the first half of the programme. In the second half, it was followed by a performance of Beethoven's Mass in C and Schubert's Song of Miriam.
The text was selected by the composer from the poem by Dean Millman [PDF File, 232KB contributed by Clifton Coles], which Gilbert modified, and the work was dedicated to the Princess of Wales.
The
Commissioning of
The Martyr of Antioch
Gilbert's contribution to the libretto
Sullivan's appointment as
conductor of the Leeds Festival
The first performance from the
Yorkshire Post
The first performance from the
Leeds Mercury
The first performance from
The Times
Extracts from
other reviews of the first performance
A performance at the Albert Hall in 1886 from
The Times
A performance at the Norwich Festival in 1890 from
The Times
In
text (ASCII) format. Submitted to the
G&S Archive by
Clifton Coles.
Four page PDF version. [116 KB] Submitted to the G&S Archive by
Bruce Greengart. This version could be used as an economical hand-out at concerts or used with the commercial recording.
You can listen to the music and follow the
libretto with a complete set of
MIDI files contributed by
Paul Howarth.
Paul Howarth has also provided a
vocal
score of this work.
