Ruddigore, or the Witch's Curse [1920 revision]: Light Opera, Orchestra Accompaniment, Conductor Score

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900), to a libretto by W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911), composed Ruddigore, or The Witch's Curse in 1886-87 as the tenth of the fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations and the successor to the phenomenally successful The Mikado. Originally titled Ruddygore, the two-act "supernatural opera" is an affectionate parody of Victorian melodrama and Gothic conventions, turning such stock figures as the virtuous maiden, disguised hero, wicked baronet, madwoman, faithful servant, and ancestral ghosts comically upside down. Set in the Cornish village of Rederring and the picture gallery of Ruddigore Castle, the story centers on the timid farmer Robin Oakapple, who is actually Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, rightful heir to a family curse requiring each Baronet of Ruddigore to commit one crime every day or die in agony. Robin has assumed a false identity to escape his inheritance and hopes to marry Rose Maybud, but when his sailor foster-brother Richard Dauntless exposes him, Robin must take up the title from his younger brother Sir Despard and become the supposedly wicked baronet, only to discover that he is hopelessly inept at villainy. When the portraits of his ancestors come to life and their leader, Sir Roderic, threatens him for neglecting the curse, Robin ultimately finds a characteristically Gilbertian loophole: since refusing to commit a daily crime causes a baronet to die, such a refusal is itself tantamount to suicide (and therefore a crime) so the curse need no longer compel the Murgatroyds to villainy, clearing the way for the opera's multiple happy marriages. Ruddigore premiered at London's Savoy Theatre on January 22, 1887, conducted by Sullivan himself; its first-night reception was unusually mixed for a Gilbert and Sullivan premiere, and the authors quickly made cuts and alterations and changed the spelling of the title from Ruddygore to Ruddigore, after which the original production ran for 288 performances. The opera disappeared from the professional D'Oyly Carte repertory after 1887 until its revival at Glasgow in December 1920, for which musical director Harry Norris (1887-1979) made substantial cuts and musical alterations; Geoffrey Toye (1889-1942) revised the orchestration and supplied a new overture, and this substantially shortened version, with further adjustments associated with the 1921 London revival, became the standard D'Oyly Carte performing text for much of the twentieth century. Although Ruddigore has never approached The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Pirates of Penzance in general popularity, the successful 1920 revival returned it permanently to the D'Oyly Carte repertory, where it remained until the company closed in 1982. modern productions sometimes restore more of Gilbert and Sullivan's original material, but the Toye-Norris revision remains historically important as the form through which several generations of audiences came to know the opera and continues to circulate in published and reprinted performing materials. This 1987 edition by Tom McCanna has been restricted to giving the text of the Kalmus parts, with obvious mistakes and discrepancies amended. Instrumentation: 2(2nd dPicc).1.2.1: 2.2.2.0: Timp.Perc(1-2): Str (4.4.3.3.3 in set): Vocal Soli (9 roles, SSAATBBBB): Chorus.