Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Golden Legend is a cantata by Arthur Sullivan with libretto by Joseph Bennett, who suggested the topic, based on the 1851 poem of the same name by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. At least 17 performances of the cantata were given in Britain during the first year after its premiere in October 1886, and during Sullivan's lifetime it was widely considered his greatest and most successful work of serious music. Indeed, outside of the comic operas with W. S. Gilbert, this cantata was widely regarded as Sullivan's most successful large-scale composition. A few days after the first performance Gilbert wrote to Sullivan, "I congratulate you heartily on the success of the Cantata which appears from all accounts to be the biggest thing you've done." In May 1888, there was a performance of the work at the Royal Albert Hall by command of Queen Victoria. She sent for Sullivan after the performance and said, "At last I have heard The Golden Legend, Sir Arthur ... You ought to write a grand opera – you would do it so well."

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