The Kingdom (Elgar) The Kingdom (Elgar) The Kingdom, Op. 51, is an English-language oratorio composed in 1906 by Edward Elgar. It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley. The dedication is ""A. M. D. G."" Elgar wrote "The Kingdom" for choral and instrumental forces. Following "The Dream of Gerontius" and "The Apostles", the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned Elgar to produce another large oratorio for the 1906 festival. This was "The Kingdom", which continues the narrative of the lives of
Communion of the Apostles (Signorelli) Communion of the Apostles (Signorelli) The Communion of the Apostles is a painting by Italian Renaissance artist Luca Signorelli, dating from around 1512. It is currently housed in the Diocesean Museum of Cortona, Tuscany. The iconography of the painting was rather unusual for Italy, and had been indeed inspired by Justus van Gent's "Corpus Domini Altarpiece" (1472–1474), that Signorelli had seen during his stay at Urbino. Above an ancient style background, similar to Perugino's works, Signorelli painted Christ in the center of the scene, surrounded by brightly dressed apostles in a pyramidal composition. Christ holds a dish with the hosts