 Beecham conducted the full premiere of "A Mass of Life" in London in 1909 (he had premiered Part II in Germany in 1908); he staged the opera "A Village Romeo and Juliet" at Covent Garden in 1910; and he mounted a six-day Delius festival in London in 1929, as well as making gramophone recordings of many of the composer's works.After 1918, Delius began to suffer the effects of syphilis, contracted during his earlier years in Paris.He became paralysed and blind, but completed some late compositions between 1928 and 1932 with the aid of an amanuensis, Eric Fenby.