In 1829, Felix and his sister, Fanny, made plans to celebrate their parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary with an evening of one-act operas and plays to be performed in their home. One of these, entitled Son and Stranger, is a tale of a quarreling older couple whose son has been absent for years in military service. He visits them without revealing his identify but lets slip that he is a soldier. Upon receiving belated word that their son is on the way home, they unaccountably mistake a passing policeman for him and turmoil ensues. Eventually, all is straightened out and ends well. Mendelssohn's delightful, seven-minute overture to this slightly convoluted tale is simple and charming. A gentle opening theme seems to depict domestic tranquility. It is followed by a dramatic developmental passage which rises to stirring horn calls and triumph. Eventually, domestic tranquility returns and all ends quietly.

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