Franciscus in Londen

5 April 1890. […] I am full of admiration for the vigor and enterprise of Miss Caroline Holland, who has just introduced Tinel’s oratorio Franciscus with the aid of her own choir, her own piano, a harp, and a triangle. Under these restricted conditions, the thing could hardly have been better done; and I only wish that those who have larger opportunities would make half as good use of them. But I cannot agree with her that Franciscus is a “magnificent work”. Musically it is as barren as Benoit’s Lucifer, though its poem is much superior to the vaporing nonsense of that huge ado about nothing. I do not at all doubt that it created a great sensation in Brussels. The city which municipalizes Wiertz’s show as a temple of Miltonic genius, and regards Léon Gallait as a great painter, is capable of admiring anything that has nothing in it; but for my part, I must beg to be excused. I give much more credit to Miss Holland for the performance than to Tinel for the composition.

Shaw, George Bernard: London music in 1888-89, Londen, 1937, p. 343-344.