ABSTRACT
MacCunn attempted to move beyond the early stages of his career with two prominent commissions: a large choral work for the Norwich Festival of 1890 and an opera for the Carl Rosa Opera Compan. With an unfulfilled festival commission, an opera that took over five years to get on stage, and his difficulties in holding a job, it appeared MacCunn was either unable or unwilling to do what was necessary to maintain his career. Yet unlike his earlier choral-orchestral works, the passages for the four soloists outweigh those of the chorus, creating an odd juxtaposition of dramatic cantata and opera. Opera dominated MacCunn's life in the 1890s. In 1891, two years after his Carl Rosa commission, he was said to be one of several composers writing operas for Richard D'Oyly Carte and the Royal English Opera House a venture established to support grand operas by native composers.
