The Masque at Kenilworth

In 1575, Queen Elizabeth visited Robert Dudley at Kenilworth Castle, where he presented her with lavish entertainments over a period of 19 days in an attempt to persuade her to marry him.

The text is based partly on the description of the queen's visit in the 1821 novel Kenilworth, by Sir Walter Scott and on other contemporary accounts and fiction.

Sullivan met the music director of the opera house, Sir Michael Costa, seeking to cultivate a relationship with the important conductor.

[7] However, The Times was disappointed in the young composer's missing so "golden a chance" to provide something of "more dignity" for such a grand event and dismissed the music as merely "trivial prettiness".

It noted, however, that had the piece been written for a less exceptional occasion, it "would be welcomed as a very agreeable work, unambitious in plan, unpretending in style, but at the same time lively, tuneful, fresh, and extremely well-written both for voices and instruments.

[2] "The final entertainment should have been a masque urging Elizabeth to marry her host", but when it was rained off, the queen rode away, ignoring pleas to stay.

These include the Lady of the Lake, who rises from the water to greet her, and the ancient Greek poet Arion, who arrives astride a dolphin.

"[8] The soloists at the premiere were Helen Lemmens-Sherrington (soprano),[8] Elizabeth Annie "Bessie" Palmer (contralto),[14] Charles Santley (baritone) and William Hayman Cummings (tenor), a last-minute substitution for the ailing Mario.

[17] A review notes that Kenilworth and its companion piece, On Shore and Sea, "emerge in good heart under veteran Richard Bonynge's life-ebullient conviction.