ABSTRACT
Arthur Sullivan was not alone in providing a new work for Leeds in 1880. Where not even the story itself was biblical, the same necessity for invention arose: The Martyr of Antioch was described on its title-page as a ‘sacred musical drama’. Just who was the ‘martyr of Antioch’, Sullivan’s titular figure? It was not a familiar allusion even in that age, which recognized a special category of devotional verse, often the product of under-employed clerics. Sullivan knew how to handle a choir and to inject the right note of flattery when a local newspaper came to interview him at rehearsal: Mr Sullivan was evidently astonished at the excellence of the chorus. On his return to London from Leeds, Sullivan made a gesture no doubt expected of him in sending a cheque for £25 as a contribution to the city’s hospital funds—the benefaction which, in name at any rate, was the reason for holding the festival.
