On Shore and Sea is a "dramatic cantata", with words by Tom Taylor. Sullivan composed this work to open Royal Albert Hall, and it was performed at the opening of the London International Exhibition of art and industry, May 1, 1871. The concert featured works commissioned from Italy, France, Germany, and Great Britain. Charles Gounod was the French representative. A cantata (Italian, sung) is a vocal composition accompanied by instruments and generally containing more than one movement. ... This article is about the dramatist and editor. ... The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences is an arts venue dedicated to Queen Victorias husband and consort, Prince Albert. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Charles Gounod. ...

The cantata has an appropriately international flavour, telling of war and reunion, based on a 16th century conflict between Christians and Moors at a time when conflict raged between the Saracen settlements in Northern Africa and the Christian states of the Mediterranean, especially Genoa. The theme is the sorrows and separations that are always incidental to war. The central characters are a sailor and his love, who are separated when he goes to battle, and later reunited. The final chorus, "Sink and Scatter, Clouds of War," was later renamed "The Song of Peace" and was played separately as a concert item. (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Look up moor, Moor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In older Western historical literature, the Saracens were the people of the Saracen Empire, another name for the Arab Caliphate under the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. ... Genoa (Genova in Italian - Zena in Genoese) is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. ...

Four years later, in 1875, Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury would also be described as "a dramatic cantata." W. S. Gilbert Arthur Sullivan Librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) collaborated on a series of fourteen comic operas in Victorian England between 1871 and 1896. ... Trial by Jury is a comic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta in one act (the only single-act Savoy Opera). ...

Synopsis

Near a small seaport on the Italian Riviera near Genoa, the fleet weighs anchor to the sounds of a joyous song of the sailors as they heave at the windlass and spread the sail, and the lament of the wives and mothers, sisters and sweethearts, left sorrowing on the shore. At sea, aboard one of the galleys, in the midnight watch, the thoughts and prayers of Il Marinajo go back to the loved ones left behind and invoke for them the protection of our Lady, Star of the Sea. Months pass. The fleet appears on the horizon, and the crowd flocks to the port to greet its triumphant return. But the galley aboard which La Sposina's sailor, Il Marinajo, served is missing: it has been taken by the sea rovers. Her beloved is captive, or slain. She gives expression to her desolation, amid the sympathizing sorrow of her companions. Liguria and the Italian Riviera Portofino’s small harbour on the Italian Riviera The Italian Rivera ( ) is the narrow coastal strip which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines. ... A windlass is an apparatus for moving a heavy weight. ... A French galley and Dutch men-of-war off a port by Abraham Willaerts, painted 17th century. ...

Her lover, however, is not slain, but a slave, toiling at the oar, under the lash of his Moorish captors. While they are celebrating their triumphs with song and feasting, he obtains the key to the chain securing all the prisoners and exhorts his fellow prisoners to strike for their liberty. The galley slaves rise up against their captors, master the galley, and steer homewards. Re-entering the port, they are welcomed by their beloved ones; the sorrow of separation is turned to rejoicing, and the cantata ends with a paean to the blessedness of Peace, inviting all nations to her temple. Paean, in Homer, was the Greek physician of the gods. ...

Characters

• La Sposina (A Riviera Woman)
• Il Marinajo (A Genoese Sailor)
• Chorus of Riviera Women
• Chorus of Genoese Sailors
• Chorus of Moorish Sea-Rovers

Musical numbers

• No.1. Choruses of sailors and women - "The windlass ply, the cable haul"
• No.2. Recitative, Song and Chorus - Il Marinajo and Sailors - "'Tis the mid-watch of night"
• No.3. Recitative - La Sposina - "From Spring-time on to Summer draws the year"
• No.4. Song and Chorus - La Sposina and Women - "Soft and sadly sea-wind swell"
• No.5. Moresque - Instrumental
• No.6. Recitative and Chorus - Il Marinajo - "The Crescent o'er the Cross is hoisted high"
• No.7. Recitative - Il Marinajo - "They chain not Christian souls that chain their limbs!"
• No.8. Chorus of Sailors (prisoners) at the oar - "With a will, oh brothers, with one will for all"
• No.9. Recitative and Duet - Il Marinajo and La Sposina - "Hark! on the night - the clash of falling chains"
• No.10. Chorus - "Sink and scatter, clouds of war"

References

• Information at the G&S Archive, with links to text and score
• Introduction at the G&S discography

External links

• Complete Midi files