Ruddygore

Creation

Gilbert decided to start upon another operetta right away. At this time, a popular theme of the Victorian stage was a melodrama. The characters in a Victorian melodrama almost always included a wicked baronet, a virtuous maiden, a country swain, and a crazy person. Gilbert's new idea was to exaggerate these aspects to make a parody of melodramas. He proposed this idea to Sullivan in 1886.

Sullivan wasn't as enthusiastic as Gilbert was about this idea; but he agreed, but only after he attended his other business (The Mikado was still making lots of money). Sullivan's other business was that he was composing an oratorio for a festival.

Sullivan's oratorio was successful. Gilbert congratulated him, and told him the new libretto was finished. Ruddygore, as they called it, was scheduled to open in three months. As was his nature, Sullivan composed day and night. He didn't complete the music until the week before opening night. Ruddygore opened January 21, 1887 at the Savoy Theatre.

Plot Synopsis

Ruddygore opens on a chorus of professional bridesmaids. They want someone to marry Rose Maybud. Every lad in the village is in love with her, but they are scared to tell her. She is left to make her own choice. The problem is, her etiquette book, which she lives by, forbids her to "speak until [she] is spoken to." The bridesmaids are bored, and want someone to marry. They ask the elderly Dame Hannah if she would marry. Dame Hannah replies she will never marry. She was once engaged to someone, but he turned out to be a bad baronet of Ruddygore, and so she couldn't marry him. When asked why she couldn't marry a bad baronet of Ruddygore, Dame Hannah tells them that the line is cursed. The first baronet of Ruddygore, Sir Rupert Murgatroyd spent his spare time and money persecuting witches. One day when he was burning a witch at the stake, she somehow got angry with Sir Rupert, and cursed him and his line forever. The curse reads:

"Each lord of Ruddygore,
Despite his best endeavour,
Shall do one crime or more,
Once, everyday forever!
This doom he can't defy,
However he may try,
For should he stay
His hand, that day
In torture he shall die!”

The bridesmaids leave. Dame Hannah talks to Rose, her foster daughter. She wants to know why Rose won't marry. Rose thinks that she can only marry someone with perfect manners. Dame Hannah suggests Robin Oakapple as a possibility.

Alone, Rose confesses that she is in love with Robin, but he is so modest and bashful that "it is hard to bring him to the point". Robin enters, and they consult each other about their "friends". Then Rose leaves.

When Robin is left alone, it is revealed that he is really Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, the elder brother of Sir Despard Murgatroyd, the present baronet of Ruddygore. Robin should really be the baronet of Ruddygore, but when he was young he pretended to die (it never really explains this part) and ran away to this village, in order to escape the curse. Then Old Adam, Robin's servant, tells him that Robin's foster brother Dick Dauntless is back from ten years at sea. The bridesmaids greet him, and Dick dances a hornpipe.

Robin tells Dick that he is having trouble. He is so modest he can't tell Rose he loves her. Dick offers to speak to her for Robin. But when Dick comes to talk to her, he immediately falls in love. He asks if she will marry him, and she agrees, reluctantly. When she realizes that Dick was supposed to talk to her for Robin, she changes her mind. After all, Robin is richer, being a farmer. Robin and Rose prepare to marry.

Rose, on a trip, passes by the castle of Ruddygore. There she meets a crazy mezzo-soprano named Mad Margaret. Margaret has been mad ever since Despard toyed with her affections as one of his crimes. She is still in love with him.

A whole bunch of random guys come in to flirt with the bridesmaids. Then we meet Sir Despard Murgatroyd. Dick tells him that his elder brother Ruthven never died, and is in the village, about to be married.

Despard interrupts the wedding to reveal Robin as Sir Ruthven. Rose can no longer marry him. She offers to marry Despard, but he "to Margaret must keep [his] vow." They get married. The only one left for Rose is Dick.

Act two opens on Sir Ruthven (once Robin) trying to decide what he should do for his daily crime. Rose and Dick come and ask to have permission to marry. Ruthven reluctantly agrees and the couple takes their leave. What happens next is my favorite part. Ruthven enters a large gallery, with portraits of his ancestors on the walls. Dramatic music is played, and the stage goes dark. When the lights turn on again, the portraits are singing. They step down from their frames, and dance around the stage. They believe the new baronet to be a

"Coward, poltroon, shaker, squeamer,
Blockhead, sluggard, dullard, dreamer,
Shirker, shuffler, crawler, creeper,
Sniffler, snuffler, wailer, weeper,
Earthworm, maggot, tadpole, weevil!”

By their standards, he hasn't really done any crimes. They tell him unless he carries off a lady he'll die. Ruthven agrees, although he has a great respect for ladies. He sends Old Adam off to "go - go to yonder village - carry off a maiden - bring her here at once - any one - I don't care which." Old Adam obeys.

Then in walk Despard and Margaret. They look very different and respectable now. They even rule a National School! They convince Ruthven to give up his life of crime, even though he's only been at it a week. He agrees, even though he knows that tomorrow he will die in horrible agony. Then Despard and Margaret leave.

Old Adam comes back with the lady - Dame Hannah. Dame Hannah nearly kills Ruthven with a poniard, and he calls for Roderick, the last baronet. Roderick sees Hannah, and sends Ruthven away. It was to Roderick that Hannah was once planning to marry. Ruthven shortly interrupts, trailed by the whole company, to tell Roderick:

"Ruthven: I can't stop to apologize- an idea just occurred to me. A Baronet of Ruddygore can only die through refusing to commit a daily crime.
Roderick: No doubt.
Ruthven: Therefore, to refuse to commit a daily crime is tantamount to suicide!
Roderick: It would seem so.
Ruthven: But suicide is, itself, a crime - and so, by your own showing, you ought never to have died at all!
Roderick: I see - I understand! Than I'm practically alive!”

Roderick embraces Hannah, Ruthven is reunited with Rose, and Dick prepares to marry Zorah, one of the many bridesmaids. The ancestors all somehow come alive again.

Public Reception

Ruddygore was thought to be a failure. It only got 288 performances, but it lined each collaborator's pocket with £ 7,000 or $35,000, which was a lot of money back then. Ruddygore wasn't as popular for probably two reasons. The first was that Ruddygore wasn't as good as The Mikado, and it came right afterwards, when The Mikado was still fresh in everyone's minds. Secondly, severe criticism was placed on the name "Ruddygore". Ruddy was a "vulgar" replacement for the unspeakable word "bloody" (in those times anyway). Gilbert used the title "Ruddygore" to mean melodramatic red blood. A lot of criticism was leveled at the name, which was believed not to be proper for ladies to say. Gilbert changed the spelling to Ruddigore part way through the run in England, but he didn't change it in the US, because the Americans didn't care. Ruddigore remained in the repertoire, and in the 1920's it became very popular.