‘THE GOLDEN LEGEND'

Evening Star, Issue 19025, 21 August 1925, Page 5

‘THE GOLDEN LEGEND'

To many who will be attending the Dunedin Choral Society’s concerts in His Majesty’s on Tuesday and Wednesday next the argument of the poem will make their enjoyment more complete. Prince Henry, sick in mind and body in his castle on the Rhine, learns that lie can bo cured only by the blood of a. maiden, who shall of her own free will consent to die lor his sake. Regarding the remedy as impossible, the Prince gives way to despair, when he is visited by Lucifer, disguised as a travelling physician. The Fiend tempts him with alcohol, to which he yields, and is driven forth as an outcast. The Prince finds shelter in the cottage of one of his vassals, whose daughter Elsio resolves to sacrifice her life for his restoration. The prayers of her mother, Ursula, to turn her from her purpose are of no avail. The Prince, Elsio, and attendants set out for Salerno. On the way they overtake a band of pilgrims (monks) and Lucifer, the latter in the garb of a friar. Later the Prince and Elsie are received’ by Lucifer, who has assumed the form of Friar Angelo, a doctor of the medical school. Elsie still persists in her determination, notwithstanding the opposition of the Prince, who now declares that ho merely wished to test her constancy. Lucifer draws Fjlsie into an ,inner chamber, from which she is rescued at the last moment. Miraculously healed, the Prince marries the devoted maiden, and is restored to his rightful place. The six scones of the cantata illustrate passages in the foregoing story. In the prologue the defeat of Lucifer is foreshadowed by an impotent attempt to wreck the cathedral of Strasburg. In the epilogue the beneficent devotion of Elsie is compared to the course of a mountain brook, which cools and fertilises the arid plain.