Comic opera , sometimes known as light opera , is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
132-568: Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse , originally called Ruddygore , is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert . It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan . It was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 22 January 1887. The first night
264-629: A "scenic cantata", Die Zwingburg , Op. 14 (1922), and a Cantata for Wartime , Op. 95, for women's voices and orchestra (1943). Sergei Prokofiev composed Semero ikh (1917–18; rev. 1933), and in 1939 premiered a cantata drawn from the film music for Alexander Nevsky . He wrote two festival cantatas, the Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of the October Revolution , Op. 74, and Flourish, Mighty Homeland , Op. 114, for
396-580: A Monastery (1940–1941, staged 1946), and Dmitri Shostakovich 's The Nose (1927–1928, staged 1930). Simultaneously, the genres of light music , operetta , musical comedy , and later, rock opera , were developed by such composers as Isaak Dunayevsky , Dmitri Kabalevsky , Dmitri Shostakovich (Opus 105: Moscow, Cheryomushki , operetta in 3 acts, (1958)), Tikhon Khrennikov , and later by Gennady Gladkov , Alexey Rybnikov and Alexander Zhurbin . The 21st century in Russian comic opera began with
528-418: A Romanian folk tale, in 1930. Although it began as a song cycle (as reflected also by its title), Arnold Schoenberg 's Gurre-Lieder (1900–1903/1910–11) evolved into one of the century's largest secular cantatas. Paul Hindemith composed three works he designated as cantatas: Die Serenaden , Op. 35, for soprano, oboe, viola, and cello (1924), Mahnung an die Jugend, sich der Musik zu befleissigen (from
660-422: A brief reunion. Robin interrupts them, accompanied by Rose, Richard and the bridesmaids. He quibbles that, under the terms of the curse, a Baronet of Ruddigore can die only by refusing to commit a daily crime. Refusing is therefore "tantamount to suicide", but suicide is, itself, a crime. Thus, he reasons, his predecessors "ought never to have died at all."* Roderic follows this logic and agrees, stating that he
792-528: A burlesque of what was 'transpontine' melodrama.... But that brand of melodrama was itself hardly alive enough to be made fun of. As the Weekly Dispatch put it: 'If stage work of the kind caricatured in Ruddygore or The Witch's Curse is not extinct, it is relegated to regions unfrequented by the patrons of Mr D'Oyly Carte's theatre'." The Sullivan scholar Gervase Hughes characterised Sir Roderic's song "When
924-695: A calm, dispassionate life of moderately-paid public service. They come to the castle and urge Robin to renounce his life of crime. When Robin asserts that he has done no wrong yet, they remind him that he is morally responsible for all the crimes Despard had done in his stead. Realising the extent of his guilt, Robin resolves to defy his ancestors. Adam has now complied with Robin's orders but has unfortunately chosen to abduct Dame Hannah. The dame proves formidable indeed, and Robin cries out for his uncle's protection. Sir Roderic duly appears, recognises his former love and, angered that his former fiancée has been abducted, dismisses Robin. Left alone, he and Dame Hannah enjoy
1056-636: A cheat and a matchmaker , text by Alexander Ablesimov (1779), on a subject resembling Rousseau 's Devin , is attributed to Mikhail Sokolovsky . Ivan Kerzelli , Vasily Pashkevich and Yevstigney Fomin also wrote a series of successful comic operas in the 18th century. In the 19th century, Russian comic opera was further developed by Alexey Verstovsky who composed more 30 opera-vaudevilles and 6 grand operas (most of them with spoken dialogue). Later, Modest Mussorgsky worked on two comic operas, The Fair at Sorochyntsi and Zhenitba ("The Marriage"), which he left unfinished (they were completed only in
1188-691: A comparatively short original run of 288 performances. The provincial tour was very brief, closing by early June 1887. Gilbert designed the ladies' and principals' costumes himself, while C. Wilhelm created the Ancestors' costumes. The set was by Hawes Craven . Six portraits of the ancestors that appeared in Act II of the original London production have survived and are on display at Normansfield Hospital Entertainment Hall, southwest London. A production in New York with D'Oyly Carte personnel ran for 53 performances. The opera
1320-558: A countermeasure to the continental operettas, commissioned Clay's collaborator, W. S. Gilbert , and the promising young composer, Arthur Sullivan , to write a short one-act opera that would serve as an afterpiece to Offenbach's La Périchole . The result was Trial by Jury ; its success launched the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership. "Mr. R. D'Oyly Carte's Opera Bouffe Company" took Trial on tour, playing it alongside French works by Offenbach and Alexandre Charles Lecocq . Eager to liberate
1452-505: A dozen hits, were Babes in Toyland (1903) and Naughty Marietta (1910). Others who wrote in a similar vein included Reginald de Koven , John Philip Sousa , Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml . The modern American musical incorporated elements of the British and American light operas, with works like Show Boat and West Side Story , that explored more serious subjects and featured
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#17328561193471584-538: A few cases Hulme was uncertain as to which conductor was responsible for which change. The most conspicuous changes were as follows: The standard Chappell vocal score was revised in the late 1920s to reflect these changes, except that the "Melodrame" and "The battle's roar is over" continued to be printed. The G. Schirmer vocal score published in America agreed with the revised Chappell score, except that it also included Robin's Act II recitative and patter song "Henceforth all
1716-482: A few solo instruments) was a principal form of Italian vocal chamber music . A cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in recitative , held together by a primitive aria repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the church music of Giacomo Carissimi ; and the English vocal solos of Henry Purcell (such as Mad Tom and Mad Bess ) show the utmost that can be made of this archaic form. With
1848-672: A few. The editors of the Bach Gesellschaft adopted "sacred cantata" as a convenient catchall for most of Bach's liturgical pieces. The term was then retroactively applied by Philipp Spitta to refer to comparable works by composers from Heinrich Schütz onwards. Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility. They were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were parodied (in parts or completely) to sacred cantatas, for example in Bach's Christmas Oratorio . Johann Sebastian Bach, almost 200 of whose cantatas survive,
1980-505: A mixture of sentiment and humour, Offenbach's works were intended solely to amuse. Though generally well crafted and full of humorous satire and grand opera parodies, plots and characters in his works were often interchangeable. Given the frenetic pace at which he worked, Offenbach sometimes used the same material in more than one opera. Another Frenchman who took up this form was Charles Lecocq . The singspiel developed in 18th-century Vienna and spread throughout Austria and Germany. As in
2112-556: A narrative frame for other anonymous English lyrics, and later designated A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer (1961) as "a cantata for alto and tenor soli, speaker, chorus, and orchestra". Luigi Nono wrote Il canto sospeso in 1955–56. Hans Werner Henze composed a Cantata della fiaba estrema and Novae de infinito laudes (both in 1963), as well as a number of other works that might be regarded as cantatas, such as Kammermusik (1958, rev. 1963), Muzen Siziliens (1966), and El Cimarrón (1969–70). Momente (1962–64/1969), one of
2244-491: A new edition of the text that restored many of the passages that prior productions had cut. Among recent professional productions, the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company has mounted the opera at the Buxton Opera House , and both Britain's Opera North and America's New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players mounted well-regarded stagings in 2010. Opera North revived its production in 2011 and 2012. The following table shows
2376-500: A place in the regular rotation of other Gilbert and Sullivan repertory companies. By 1920, in a reappraisal of the piece, Samuel Langford wrote in The Manchester Guardian that "the gruesome strain is the real Gilbertian element" but "the opera has abundant charm among its more forbidding qualities". In 1934 Hesketh Pearson rated the libretto among Gilbert's best. In a 1937 review, The Manchester Guardian declared, It
2508-562: A place of evil repute to the righteous British householder.... A first effort to bridge the gap was made by the German Reed Entertainers. Nevertheless, an 1867 production of Offenbach's The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein (seven months after its French première) ignited the English appetite for light operas with more carefully crafted librettos and scores, and continental European operettas continued to be extremely popular in Britain in
2640-440: A series of backhanded compliments. Realising her mistake, Rose breaks her engagement with Richard and accepts Robin. Mad Margaret appears, dishevelled and crazed . She has been driven to madness by her love for Sir Despard Murgatroyd, the "Bad Baronet". She is jealously seeking Rose Maybud, having heard that Sir Despard intends to carry Rose off as one of his daily "crimes". Rose tells her, however, that she need not fear, as she
2772-404: A subject for a next opera. Some of the plot elements of Ruddigore had been introduced by Gilbert in his earlier one-act opera, Ages Ago (1869), including the tale of the wicked ancestor and the device of the ancestors stepping out of their portraits. Heinrich Marschner 's 1828 opera, Der Vampyr , involves a Lord Ruthven who must abduct and sacrifice three maidens or die. Locals claim that
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#17328561193472904-1186: A tight integration among book, movement and lyrics. In Canada, Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron composed in the Gilbert and Sullivan style of light opera. Leo, the Royal Cadet was performed for the first time on 11 July 1889 at Martin's Opera House in Kingston, Ontario . The line between light opera and other recent forms is difficult to draw. Several works are variously called operettas or musicals, such as Candide and Sweeney Todd , depending on whether they are performed in opera houses or in theaters. In addition, some recent American and British musicals make use of an operatic structure, for example, containing recurring motifs, and may even be sung through without dialogue. Those with orchestral scores are usually styled "musicals", while those played on electronic instruments are often styled rock operas . Cantata A cantata ( / k æ n ˈ t ɑː t ə / ; Italian: [kanˈtaːta] ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of
3036-541: A virtuous farmer, but Rose replies that he is too diffident to approach her, and the rules of etiquette forbid her from speaking until she is spoken to. Robin enters, claiming to seek advice from Rose about "a friend" who is in love. Rose says that she has such a friend too, but Robin is too shy to take the hint. Rose's devotion to etiquette prevents her from taking the first step, and so they part. Old Adam, Robin's faithful servant, arrives and addresses Robin as Sir Ruthven (pronounced "Rivven") Murgatroyd. Robin reveals that he
3168-574: A whole is very weak and loosely constructed." Fun asked, "Could it be possible that we were to have a dull play from the cleverest and most original humorist of the day? Alas! It could – it was." According to the Pall Mall Budget , "the players seemed to be nervous from the start. Miss Braham forgot her lines, and was not in voice. Mr. (George) Grossmith was in the same plight". The Times also criticised Braham, stating that she "acted most charmingly, but sang persistently out of tune". The staging
3300-458: Is "practically" alive. Now that Robin is free of the curse, Rose once again drops Richard and happily resumes her engagement to Robin. Roderic and Dame Hannah embrace, while Richard settles for the First Bridesmaid, Zorah. The first night was not as successful as the other Savoy opera premieres because of controversy over the title and the revivification of the ghosts, and reservations about
3432-510: Is a cantata with three symphonic preludes. The full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by Johannes Brahms in his Rinaldo , which, like the Walpurgisnacht —was set to a text by Goethe . Other cantatas, Beethoven's Meeresstille , works of Brahms and many notable small English choral works, such as cantatas of John Henry Maunder and John Stanley , find various ways to set poetry to choral music. The competition for
3564-513: Is a collection of six church cantatas actually intended for performance on six different days, though together they form as complete an artistic whole as any classical oratorio. During the baroque era, the term "cantata" generally retained its original Italian usage to describe a secular vocal piece of extended length, often in different sections, and usually Italianate in style. At the same time, vocal pieces of similar scope, often with several singers, and various instruments, were in great demand for
3696-403: Is a crude "selection" hardly redeemed by its spirited ending. The final cadence is by no means typical of Sullivan. In this overture a "double chorus" ... is taken complete from the opera – an unsatisfactory move because it vitiates its effect in the proper place. Nor is the orchestration of the passage particularly skilful. ... When Ruddigore was revived after some thirty-four years this jumble
3828-415: Is a notable contributor to the genre. His cantatas are usually written for a baroque orchestra consisting of a string section, an oboe section, and a continuo group, timpani and brass were sometimes added on festive occasions such as Christmas or Easter. The vocal forces consisted of a four-part choir and soloists. Bach also wrote some cantatas for only one solo singer (ex. BWV 51 ). Christoph Graupner
3960-584: Is alive, calls himself Robin Oakapple, and is going to marry Rose later that day. The elated Despard declares himself free of the curse, as he can now transfer the baronetcy to his brother. The village gathers to celebrate the nuptials of Rose and Robin. Sir Despard interrupts, revealing that Robin is his elder brother and must accept his rightful title as the Bad Baronet. Rose, horrified at Robin's true identity, resolves to marry Despard – who refuses her: now free of
4092-429: Is almost at a loss what to select for quotation from an embarrassment of humorous riches.") but rated the score, as a whole, "of a fair average kind, being not equal to The Sorcerer but certainly superior to Princess Ida ." Punch also thought the second act weak: "The idea of the burlesque is funny to begin with, but not to go on with". The Pall Mall Gazette thought the libretto "as witty and fanciful as any of
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4224-466: Is also in cantata form. Mendelssohn's Symphony Cantata , the Lobgesang , is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. It is preceded by three symphonic movements, a device avowedly suggested by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony ; but the analogy is not accurate, as Beethoven's work is a symphony of which the fourth movement is a choral finale of essentially single design, whereas Mendelssohn's Symphony Cantata
4356-542: Is by Elena Polenova, based on a folk-drama, Tsar Maksimilyan , and the work premiered on June 20, 2001, at the Mariinski Theatre , St Petersburg. Prize "Gold Mask, 2002" and "Gold Soffit, 2002". The Children of Rosenthal ( Дети Розенталя ), an opera in two acts by Leonid Desyatnikov , with a libretto by Vladimir Sorokin . This work was commissioned by the Bolshoi theatre and premiered on March 23, 2005. The staging of
4488-450: Is incomprehensible that Ruddigore should ever have been considered less attractive than the other comic operas in the Savoy series. The libretto gives us Gilbert at his wittiest, and in the music we hear Sullivan not only in his most tuneful vein but also as a master of more subtle rhythms than he commands elsewhere. Moreover, the parody is one that all can enjoy to the full, for here the satire
4620-674: Is indeed Sir Ruthven, having fled his home twenty years previously to avoid inheriting the Baronetcy of Ruddigore and its attendant curse. He tells Adam never to reveal his true identity. Now Richard Dauntless, Robin's foster-brother, arrives after ten years at sea. Robin tells him that he is afraid to declare his love to Rose, and Richard offers to speak to her on his behalf. When Richard sees Rose, however, he falls in love with her himself and proposes immediately. After consulting her book of etiquette, Rose accepts. When Robin finds out what has happened, he points out his foster-brother's many flaws through
4752-480: Is no commercial recording of Ruddigore as Gilbert and Sullivan left it, but the 1987 New Sadler's Wells recording largely presents the opera with the materials that were included on its first night. The Gilbert and Sullivan Discography judges that the best commercial recording is the New Sadler's Wells disc and that, of those by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the 1924 and 1962 recordings are best. It also asserts that
4884-452: Is not pointed at a coterie, nor at this or that æsthetic movement, but at the absurdities of a melodramatic tradition which is nearly as old as the stage itself. In 1984, Arthur Jacobs rated Ruddigore "One of the weaker of Gilbert's librettos, it was seen (especially after the freshness of invention in The Mikado ) to be rather obviously relying on brushed-up ideas.... The plot is supposedly
5016-492: Is pledged to another. They leave just in time to avoid the arrival of the Bucks and Blades, who have come to court the village girls, followed by Sir Despard, who proceeds to frighten everyone away. He muses that, although he is forced by the family curse to commit a heinous crime every day, he commits the crime early, and for the rest of the day he does good works. Richard approaches him and discloses that Despard's elder brother Ruthven
5148-587: Is possibly due to the fact that Bach's Leipzig congregation was expected to sing along with them, but the Darmstadt court was not. Also, many of Graupner's cantatas exploit elaborate orchestral effects and use exotic instrumentation, such as chalumeau , flûte d'amour , oboe d'amore , viola d'amore , trumpets , horns and timpani . See: List of cantatas by Christoph Graupner . The term "cantata" came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, as distinguished from solo vocal music. In early 19th-century cantatas,
5280-434: Is still performed occasionally today. Late in the century, Gustav Mahler wrote his early Das klagende Lied on his own words between 1878 and 1880, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor created a successful trilogy of cantatas, The Song of Hiawatha between 1898 and 1900. Cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well. Indeed, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that one of
5412-442: Is that Sullivan never composed more brilliant music, while Gilbert's keen satire and pungent humor is [ sic ] as brilliant as ever." During the summer of 1886, Braham secretly married J. Duncan Young, previously a principal tenor with the company. In early 1887, shortly into the run of Ruddigore , Braham informed Carte that she was pregnant with her second child, a daughter, who would be born on 6 May. Geraldine Ulmar ,
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5544-518: The Adelphi Theatre . There is a priggishly good-mannered poor-but-virtuous heroine, a villain who carries off the maiden, a hero in disguise and his faithful old retainer who dreams of their former glory days, the snake-in-the-grass sailor who claims to be following his heart, the wild, mad girl, the swagger of fire-eating patriotism, ghosts coming to life to enforce a family curse , and so forth. But Gilbert, in his customary topsy-turvy fashion, turns
5676-562: The Cantata para América Mágica , Op. 27 (1960), Bomarzo , Op. 32 (1964), and Milena , Op. 37 (1971), and Gottfried von Einem composed in 1973 An die Nachgeborenen based on diverse texts, the title taken from a poem of Bertolt Brecht . Mikis Theodorakis composed the cantatas According to the Sadducees and Canto Olympico . Herbert Blendinger 's Media in vita was premiered in 1980, his Mich ruft zuweilen eine Stille (Sometimes
5808-475: The Italian verb cantare , "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment , typically in several movements , often involving a choir . The meaning of the term changed over time, from the simple single-voice madrigal of the early 17th century, to the multi-voice "cantata da camera" and the "cantata da chiesa" of the later part of that century, from the more substantial dramatic forms of
5940-513: The Plöner Musiktage , 1932), and Ite angeli veloces for alto and tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra, with audience participation (1953–55). Of Anton Webern 's last three compositions, two are secular cantatas: Cantata No. 1, Op. 29 (1938–39), and Cantata No. 2, Op. 31 (1941–43), both setting texts by Hildegard Jone . Webern had begun sketching a Third Cantata by the time he was killed in 1945. Ernst Krenek also composed two examples:
6072-557: The singspiel and the French model. Franz von Suppé is remembered mainly for his overtures. Johann Strauss II , the "waltz king", contributed Die Fledermaus (1874) and The Gypsy Baron (1885). Carl Millöcker a long-time conductor at the Theater an der Wien , also composed some of the most popular Viennese operettas of the late 19th century, including Der Bettelstudent (1882), Gasparone (1884) and Der arme Jonathan (1890). After
6204-416: The "first true Italian comic opera" – that is to say, it had everything: it was in standard Italian and not in dialect; it was no longer simply an intermezzo, but rather an independent piece; it had a real story that people liked; it had dramatic variety; and, musically, it had strong melodies and even strong supporting orchestral parts, including a strong "stand-alone" overture (i.e., you could even enjoy
6336-565: The 1860s and 1870s, including Les Cloches de Corneville , Madame Favart and others into the 1880s, often adapted by H. B. Farnie and Robert Reece . F. C. Burnand collaborated with several composers, including Arthur Sullivan in Cox and Box , to write several comic operas on English themes in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1875, Richard D'Oyly Carte , one of the impresarios aiming to establish an English school of family-friendly light opera by composers such as Frederic Clay and Edward Solomon as
6468-485: The 18th century to the usually sacred-texted 19th-century cantata, which was effectively a type of short oratorio . Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantatas; other cantatas can be indicated as secular cantatas. Several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas . Christoph Graupner , Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of church cantatas for
6600-426: The 20th century). Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote a comic opera, Cherevichki (1885). Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed May Night 1878–1879 and The Golden Cockerel 1906–1907. In the 20th century, the best examples of comic opera by Russian composers were Igor Stravinsky 's Mavra (1922) and The Rake's Progress (1951), Sergey Prokofiev 's The Love for Three Oranges (1919) and Betrothal in
6732-462: The 7th Phryne Fisher book). The Ghosts' High Noon by John Dickson Carr (1969) was named for the song of the same name in Ruddigore . In " Runaround ", a story from Isaac Asimov 's I, Robot , a robot in a state similar to drunkenness sings snippets of "There Grew a Little Flower". In chapter 12 of John Myers Myers ' novel Silverlock Sir Despard appears and admits that he fakes his evil acts;
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#17328561193476864-476: The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos created a secular cantata titled Mandu çarará , based on an Indian legend collected by Barbosa Rodrigues. Francis Poulenc composed in 1943 Figure humaine , FP 120, a cantata for double mixed choir of 12 voices on poems by Paul Éluard . Igor Stravinsky composed a work titled simply Cantata in 1951–52, which used stanzas from the 15th-century "Lyke-wake Dirge" as
6996-637: The Brent Walker video of Ruddigore is one of the stronger entries in that series. More recent professional productions have been recorded on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival . Selected recordings Adaptations of the opera have included the following. References in literature have included several novels in which the setting of the story involved a production of Ruddigore , such as Murder and Sullivan by Sara Hoskinson Frommer (1997) and Ruddy Gore by Kerry Greenwood (2004;
7128-559: The English stage from risqué French influences, and emboldened by the success of Trial by Jury , Carte formed a syndicate in 1877 to perform "light opera of a legitimate kind". Gilbert and Sullivan were commissioned to write a new comic opera, The Sorcerer , starting the series that came to be known as the Savoy operas (named for the Savoy Theatre , which Carte later built for these works) that included H.M.S. Pinafore , The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado , which became popular around
7260-502: The French Prix de Rome requires that each candidate submit a cantata. Hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with Sardanapale . While almost all of the Prix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten (along with their composers, for the most part), Debussy's prize-winning L'enfant prodigue (1884, following his unsuccessful Le gladiateur of 1883)
7392-411: The French opéra comique , the singspiel was an opera with spoken dialogue, and usually a comic subject, such as Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) and The Magic Flute (1791). Later singspiels , such as Beethoven's Fidelio (1805) and Weber's Der Freischütz (1821), retained the form, but explored more serious subjects. 19th century Viennese operetta was built on both
7524-680: The Italian and French forms spread to other parts of Europe. Many countries developed their own genres of comic opera, incorporating the Italian and French models along with their own musical traditions. Examples include German singspiel , Viennese operetta , Spanish zarzuela , Russian comic opera, English ballad and Savoy opera , North American operetta and musical comedy . In late 17th-century Italy, light-hearted musical plays began to be offered as an alternative to weightier opera seria (17th-century Italian opera based on classical mythology ). Il Trespolo tutore (1679) by Alessandro Stradella
7656-744: The Murgatroyd ancestors in Ruddigore are based on the Murgatroyd family of East Riddlesden Hall , West Yorkshire . According to his biographers, Sidney Dark and Rowland Grey, Gilbert also drew on some of his earlier verse, the Bab Ballads , for some plot elements. The song "I know a youth who loves a little maid" can be traced back to the Bab Ballad "The Modest Couple", in which the very shy and proper Peter and Sarah are betrothed but are reluctant to shake hands or sit side by side. Sir Roderic's Act II song "When
7788-527: The Oxford University Press 2000 scholarly edition of the score, has attributed the cuts and other changes to the music principally to Harry Norris , musical director of the D'Oyly Carte at the time of the Glasgow revival, and the modifications to the opera's orchestration, as well as the new overture, to Geoffrey Toye . He concluded that some lesser changes may have been made by Malcolm Sargent , but in
7920-504: The Rose in the New York cast, was summoned to London to take over the role. Gilbert ranked Ruddigore along with The Yeomen of the Guard and Utopia, Limited as one of his three favourite Savoy operas. Later assessments have found much merit in the piece. After it was revived by the D'Oyly Carte Opera company in 1920, the work remained in their regular repertory, and it has generally been given
8052-646: The Savoy Theatre. The audience even voiced sentiments in words and there were shouts and cries such as these: 'Take off this rot!' 'Give us The Mikado !'" The paper added, "(T)he name is decidedly against it." The performance was hampered by an off night for Leonora Braham as Rose Maybud and by George Grossmith 's usual first night jitters, a week after which he fell dangerously ill and had to be replaced by his understudy, Henry Lytton , for almost three weeks. Sullivan noted in his diary, "Production of Ruddigore [ sic ] at Savoy. Very enthusiastic up to
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#17328561193478184-449: The Savoy audience that the second act of the premiere was inferior to the first. The Times opined that "the fun which runs alive in the first act runs completely dry in the second, which is long and tedious, and winds up with an anti-climax of inanity." The Times praised both the libretto and the music of the first act ("Everything sparkles with the flashes of Mr. Gilbert's wit and the graces of Sir Arthur Sullivan's melodiousness... one
8316-633: The Savoy except Princess Ida , Ruddigore closed in November 1887 to make way for a revival of H.M.S. Pinafore . To allow the revival of the earlier work to be prepared at the Savoy, the last two performances of Ruddigore were given at the Crystal Palace , on 8 and 9 November. It was not revived in the lifetimes of the composer or author. In the town of Rederring, in Cornwall , a chorus of professional bridesmaids frets that there have been no weddings for
8448-610: The Teatro de la Zarzuela de Madrid, but with little success and light attendance. In spite of this, in 1873 a new theater, the Teatro Apolo , was opened for zarzuela grande , which shared the failures of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, until it was forced to change its program to género chico . The first opera presented in Russia , in 1731, was a comic opera (or "commedia per musica"), Calandro , by an Italian composer, Giovanni Alberto Ristori . It
8580-537: The Unknown Region (1907), Five Mystical Songs (1911), and Five Tudor Portraits (1936), and sacred cantatas including Sancta civitas (1926), Benedicite (1930), Dona nobis pacem (1936), and Hodie (1954). Joseph Ryelandt also composed secular and sacred cantatas, such as Le chant de la pauvreté Op. 92 in 1928 and Veni creator Op. 123 in 1938. Béla Bartók composed the secular Cantata Profana , subtitled "The Nine Splendid Stags" and based on
8712-469: The bad baronets of Ruddigore. Only on her wedding day had she discovered his true identity. Dame Hannah tells the bridesmaids about the curse of Ruddigore. Centuries ago, Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, the first Baronet of Ruddigore, had persecuted witches . One of his victims, as she was burnt at the stake , cursed all future Baronets of Ruddigore to commit a crime every day, or perish in inconceivable agonies. Every Baronet of Ruddigore since then had fallen under
8844-452: The castle's portrait gallery. The curse requires them to ensure that their successors are duly committing a crime every day, and to torture them to death if they fail. They inquire as to Robin's compliance with this requirement. They are not pleased to learn that the newly-recognised baronet's crimes range from the underwhelming (filing a false income tax return: "Nothing at all", say the ghosts; "Everybody does that. It's expected of you.") to
8976-501: The changes, with appendices containing some music deleted early in the run. After the expiration of the British copyright on Gilbert and Sullivan works in 1961, and especially since the Sadler's Wells production and recording, various directors have experimented with restoring some or all of the cut material in place of the 1920s D'Oyly Carte version. After The Mikado opened in 1885, Gilbert, as usual, promptly turned his thoughts to finding
9108-507: The chorus is the vehicle for music more lyric and songlike than in oratorio, not excluding the possibility of a brilliant climax in a fugue as in Ludwig van Beethoven 's Der glorreiche Augenblick , Carl Maria von Weber 's Jubel-Kantate , and Felix Mendelssohn 's Die erste Walpurgisnacht . Anton Bruckner composed several Name-day cantatas, a Festive Cantata and two secular cantatas ( Germanenzug and Helgoland ). Bruckner's Psalm 146
9240-424: The company closed in 1982. A centenary revival at Sadler's Wells in London restored the opera to almost its original first-night state. In 2000, Oxford University Press published a scholarly edition of the score and libretto, edited by Sullivan scholar David Russell Hulme . This restores the work as far as possible to the state in which its authors left it and includes a substantial introduction that explains many of
9372-419: The crimes" and both versions of the Act II finale. The publication of the Oxford University Press edition in 2000 made it easier to restore passages deleted from the opera. Due to the many different editions available and the work's complex textual history, there is no standard performing version of Ruddigore . Comparing the two extant overtures, Gervase Hughes wrote: [T]he original overture to Ruddigore ...
9504-576: The critic had praise for many members of the cast and felt the production would improve once the cast was more familiar with the work, the reviewer concluded that "Gilbert and Sullivan have failed." On the other hand, the American tour, beginning in Philadelphia six days later, met with a much more favourable audience reaction. "That the opera is a great success here and another " Mikado " in prospective popularity there can be no question.... The general verdict
9636-458: The curse's influence, and died in agony once he could no longer bring himself to continue a life of crime. After the horrified bridesmaids exit, Dame Hannah greets her niece, Rose, and asks whether there is any young man in the village whom she could love. Rose, who takes her ideas of Right and Wrong from a book of etiquette, replies that all of the young men she meets are either too rude or too shy. Dame Hannah asks particularly about Robin Oakapple,
9768-661: The curse, the ex-baronet takes up with his old love and fiancée Mad Margaret, who is ecstatic. Rose then accepts Richard, as he "is the only one that's left." Robin leaves to take up his rightful identity as Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd. At Ruddigore Castle, Robin (now Sir Ruthven) tries to come to grips with being a bad baronet, a task at which he proves to be spectacularly lacking. Old Adam suggests various evil crimes, but Robin prefers minor acts that are not criminal, but "simply rude". Richard and Rose enter to ask Robin's consent to their marriage, which he gives grudgingly. Robin's weak crimes stir his ancestral ghosts from their usual haunt of
9900-471: The expression of refined sentiment and comic humour. In the former respect, the charm of graceful melody prevails; while, in the latter, the music of the most grotesque situations is redolent of fun." There were further changes and cuts, including a new overture, when Rupert D'Oyly Carte revived Ruddigore after the First World War . Although never a big money-spinner, it remained in the repertoire until
10032-467: The first night because some audience members did not like the reappearance of the ghosts or a reference to the "Supreme Court" (according to D'Oyly Carte, misunderstood as "Supreme Being") but asserted that both objections had been addressed by the removal of the offending material, and that audience reaction had been otherwise enthusiastic. He added, "The theatre is crammed nightly." The American productions met with mixed success. The demand for tickets for
10164-483: The first night was so great that the management of the Fifth Avenue Theatre sold them by public auction. A "large and brilliant" audience assembled for the New York premiere on 21 February 1887. "After the first half of the first act there was a palpable diminution of interest on the part of the audience, and it must be admitted that there were times during the course of the evening when people were bored." While
10296-521: The first time. Ruddigore was not revived professionally during the authors' lifetimes. When it received its first professional revival in December 1920 in Glasgow – and then in London, in October 1921 – the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made a number of further cuts and changes that were incorporated in scores and used in subsequent D'Oyly Carte productions and recordings. David Russell Hulme, editor of
10428-703: The genre was like in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the Italian operatic style influenced zarzuela . But beginning with the reign of Bourbon King Charles III , anti-Italian sentiment increased. Zarzuela returned to its roots in popular Spanish tradition in works such as the sainetes (or Entr'actes) of Don Ramón de la Cruz. This author's first work in this genre was Las segadoras de Vallecas ("The Reapers of Vallecas", 1768), with music by Rodríguez de Hita . Single act zarzuelas were classified as género chico (the "little genre" or "little form") and zarzuelas of three or more acts were género grande (the "big genre" or "big form"). Zarzuela grande battled on at
10560-519: The history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime: The following tables show the casts of the principal original productions and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring repertory at approximately 10-year intervals through to the company's 1982 closure: The four D'Oyly Carte Opera Company recordings (1924, 1931, 1950, 1962) substantially reflect the 1920s cuts and alterations, although they differ in some details. None of these four recordings include Robin's Act II recitative and patter song. There
10692-436: The last 20 minutes, then the audience showed dissatisfaction." On the day of the premiere, The New York Times , whose correspondent attended the dress rehearsal the day before, warned, "The music is not up to the standard of Sir Arthur Sullivan. As a whole it is largely commonplace ... Gilbert's dialogue in the first act is here and there very amusing, but in the second it is slow and tedious." The press generally agreed with
10824-423: The last six months. All of the eligible young men are hopeful of a union with Rose Maybud, the prettiest maiden in the village, yet they are too timid to approach her. The desperate bridesmaids ask Rose's aunt, Dame Hannah, if she would consider marrying, but she has vowed to remain eternally single. Many years previously, she had been betrothed to "a god-like youth" who turned out to be Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, one of
10956-486: The latter incorporating dances, with chorus numbers and humorous scenes that are usually duets. These works are relatively short, and ticket prices were often low, to appeal to the general public. There are two main forms of zarzuela : Baroque zarzuela ( c. 1630 –1750), the earliest style, and Romantic zarzuela ( c. 1850 –1950), which can be further divided into the two subgenres of género grande and género chico . Pedro Calderón de la Barca
11088-496: The locals are so used to this that he needs to pay the girls extra to scream when abducted. Comic opera Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa , emerged as an alternative to opera seria . It quickly made its way to France, where it became opéra comique , and eventually, in the following century, French operetta , with Jacques Offenbach as its most accomplished practitioner. The influence of
11220-500: The mid-19th century, despite Giuseppe Verdi 's Falstaff staged in 1893. French composers eagerly seized upon the Italian model and made it their own, calling it opéra comique . Early proponents included the Italian Egidio Duni , François-André Philidor , Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny , André Grétry , François-Adrien Boïeldieu , Daniel François Auber and Adolphe Adam . Although originally reserved for less serious works,
11352-405: The moral absolutes of melodrama upside down: The hero becomes evil, the villain becomes good, and the virtuous maiden changes fiancés at the drop of a hat. The ghosts come back to life, foiling the curse, and all ends happily. Sullivan delayed in setting Ruddigore to music through most of 1886. He had committed to a heavy conducting schedule and to compose a cantata , The Golden Legend , for
11484-431: The most grotesque situations is redolent of fun." On 1 February 1887, The Theatre wrote, "There can be no doubt that by its admirable production of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan's latest work the Savoy management has scored another of those shining and remunerative successes that its enterprise, intelligence, and good taste have repeatedly achieved – and merited." A week later, The Academy reckoned that Ruddygore (as it
11616-630: The most important works of Karlheinz Stockhausen , is often described as a cantata. Benjamin Britten composed at least six works he designated as cantatas: The Company of Heaven (1937), Rejoice in the Lamb , Op. 30 (1943), Saint Nicolas , Op. 42 (1949), the Cantata academica , Op. 62 (1959), the Cantata Misericordium , Op. 69 (1963), and Phaedra , Op. 93 (1975). Alberto Ginastera also composed three works in this form:
11748-575: The most popular form of staged entertainment in Italy from about 1750 to 1800. In 1749, thirteen years after Pergolesi's death, his La serva padrona swept Italy and France, evoking the praise of such French Enlightenment figures as Rousseau . In 1760, Niccolò Piccinni wrote the music to La Cecchina to a text by the great Venetian playwright, Carlo Goldoni . That text was based on Samuel Richardson 's popular English novel, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740). Many years later, Verdi called La Cecchina
11880-453: The most popular pieces of classical music of the 20th century to the layman's ears, is a cantata, namely Carmina Burana (1935–1936) by the German composer Carl Orff . In the early part of the century, secular cantatas once again became prominent, while the 19th-century tradition of sacred cantatas also continued. Ralph Vaughan Williams composed both kinds: "festival" cantatas such as Toward
12012-412: The night wind howls" as "unquestionably the finest piece of descriptive music that Sullivan ever wrote, worthy of a place beside Schubert 's Erlkönig , Wagner 's overture to The Flying Dutchman , and well above Saint-Saëns ' Danse macabre , all of which are tone-paintings in a similar colour. Although the vocal score gives not a hint of the uncanny brilliance of the orchestration, it demonstrates
12144-483: The night wind howls" had its forerunner in one of Gilbert's verses published in Fun magazine in 1869: Fair phantom, come! The moon's awake, The owl hoots gaily from its brake, The blithesome bat's a-wing. Come, soar to yonder silent clouds; The ether teems with peopled shrouds: We'll fly the lightsome spectre crowds, Thou cloudy, clammy thing! The opera also includes and parodies elements of melodrama , popular at
12276-456: The noisy premieres of two works whose genre could be described as "opera-farce": Tsar Demyan ( Царь Демьян ) – A frightful opera performance . A collective project of five authors wrote the work: Leonid Desyatnikov and Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky from St. Petersburg , Iraida Yusupova and Vladimir Nikolayev from Moscow , and the creative collective "Kompozitor", which is a pseudonym for the well-known music critic Pyotr Pospelov. The libretto
12408-475: The occasions of the liturgical year. The term originated in the early 17th century, simultaneously with opera and oratorio . Prior to that, all " cultured " music was vocal. With the rise of instrumental music , the term appeared, while instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in sonatas . From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, the cantata for one or two solo voices with accompaniment of basso continuo (and perhaps
12540-431: The opera was accompanied by juicy scandal; however it was an enormous success. England traces its light opera tradition to the ballad opera , typically a comic play that incorporated songs set to popular tunes. John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was the earliest and most popular of these. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Duenna (1775), with a score by Thomas Linley , was expressly described as "a comic opera". By
12672-491: The operas of Scarlatti, Pergolesi ( La serva padrona , 1733), Galuppi ( Il filosofo di campagna , 1754), Piccinni ( La Cecchina , 1760), Paisiello ( Nina , 1789), Cimarosa ( Il matrimonio segreto , 1792), and then the great comic operas of Mozart and, later, Rossini and Donizetti . At first, comic operas were generally presented as intermezzi between acts of more serious works. Neapolitan and then Italian comic opera grew into an independent form and became
12804-465: The opinion is universal that the thing will be a worse failure in the provinces and America than Iolanthe ." In a letter cabled to The New York Times and printed on 18 February, Richard D'Oyly Carte denied that the piece was a failure, stating that box office receipts were running ahead of the same time period for The Mikado , despite the absence of the ailing Grossmith, who was by then recovering. He acknowledged that there had been "isolated hisses" on
12936-479: The overture as an independent orchestral piece). Verdi was also enthusiastic because the music was by a southern Italian and the text by a northerner, which appealed to Verdi's pan-Italian vision. The genre was developed further in the first half of the 19th century by Gioachino Rossini in his works such as The Barber of Seville (1816) and La Cenerentola (1817) and by Gaetano Donizetti in L'elisir d'amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843), but declined in
13068-478: The plot and music. According to the St James's Gazette , "The first act was well received by the audience. Number after number was rapturously encored, and every droll sally of dialogue was received with a shout of appreciative mirth." The interval was long (a half hour) as the elaborate picture gallery needed to be set up, but D'Oyly Carte had anticipated this and had printed indulgence slips which were distributed. It
13200-804: The reviews in the Sunday papers may have been better than the others because their critics, facing deadlines (the premiere was on Saturday night, and finished late because of the long interval), may not have stayed to the end. Fun , having disparaged the libretto, said of the music, "Sir Arthur has surpassed himself". The Pall Mall Gazette praised the "charming melodies, fresh and delightful as ever"; The Daily News wrote that "Mr Gilbert retains in all its fulness his unique facility for humorous satire and whimsical topsy-turveydom" and praised Sullivan's "melodic genius which never fails". Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper said, "Sir Arthur Sullivan must be congratulated." Subsequent reviews, written after Gilbert and Sullivan had renamed
13332-488: The ridiculous (forging his own will and disinheriting his unborn son). Robin's uncle, the late Sir Roderic Murgatroyd, orders him to "carry off a lady" that day or perish in horrible agony. After the ghosts treat him to a sample of the agonies he would face, Robin reluctantly agrees. He tells Adam to go to the village and abduct a lady – "Any lady!" Despard, meanwhile, has atoned for his previous ten years of evil acts and has married Mad Margaret. The two of them now live
13464-414: The rise of the da capo aria , the cantata became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative. George Frideric Handel 's numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a rather large scale. His Latin motet Silete Venti , for soprano solo, shows the use of this form in church music. The Italian solo cantata tended, when on a large scale, to become indistinguishable from a scene in an opera , in
13596-415: The risqué state of musical theatre and introduced short comic operas designed to be more family-friendly and to elevate the intellectual level of musical entertainments. Jessie Bond wrote, The stage was at a low ebb, Elizabethan glories and Georgian artificialities had alike faded into the past, stilted tragedy and vulgar farce were all the would-be playgoer had to choose from, and the theatre had become
13728-527: The same way the church cantata, solo or choral, is indistinguishable from a small oratorio or portion of an oratorio. This is equally evident whether one examines the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant (see List of Bach cantatas ) or the Chandos Anthems of Handel. In Johann Sebastian Bach's case, some of the larger cantatas are actually called oratorios, and the Christmas Oratorio
13860-430: The second half of the 19th century, the London musical stage was dominated by pantomime and musical burlesque , as well as bawdy, badly translated continental operettas, often including "ballets" featuring much prurient interest, and visiting the theatre became distasteful to the respectable public, especially women and children. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas German Reed , beginning in 1855, and a number of other Britons, deplored
13992-467: The series" though "the second half of the last act dragged a little." The New York Times reported, "the second (act) fell flat from the beginning and was a gloomy and tedious failure." According to the St. James's Gazette , "gradually the enthusiasm faded away and the interest of the story began to flag, until at last the plot seemed within an ace of collapsing altogether." The Era commented, "the libretto as
14124-469: The services of the Lutheran church. Such pieces were usually called geistliche Konzerte (singular: geistliches Konzert , meaning sacred concerto). Many of these pieces were simply called by their opening text. Such pieces for the liturgy or other occasions were not only composed by Bach but also by Dieterich Buxtehude , Christoph Graupner , Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Georg Philipp Telemann , to name
14256-467: The show and made other changes, were generally more favourable. A week after the premiere, the Illustrated London News praised the work, the actors and both Gilbert and, especially, Sullivan: "Sir Arthur Sullivan has eminently succeeded alike in the expression of refined sentiment and comic humour. In the former respect, the charm of graceful melody prevails; while, in the latter, the music of
14388-817: The sole representatives of the genre surviving today. Only recently, some of these other English light operas have begun to be explored by scholars and to receive performances and recordings. In the United States, Victor Herbert was one of the first to pick up the family-friendly style of light opera that Gilbert and Sullivan had made popular, although his music was also influenced by the European operetta composers. His earliest pieces, starting with Prince Ananias in 1894, were styled "comic operas", but his later works were described as "musical extravaganza", "musical comedy", "musical play", "musical farce", and even "opera comique". His two most successful pieces, out of more than half
14520-443: The stage was darkened for the Ancestors' reincarnation. A technological solution was found: Sullivan used a glass tube baton containing a platinum wire that glowed a dull red. The opera encountered some criticism from audiences at its opening on 22 January 1887, and one critic wondered if the libretto showed "signs of the failing powers of the author". After a run shorter than any of the earlier Gilbert and Sullivan operas premiered at
14652-476: The sure footholds by which the music in a round dozen bars finds its way from D minor to A flat major and back and the shattering impact of the fortissimo chorus entry at an interrupted cadence on the chord of B flat major. The progressions that follow look to be unusual, but if we study them carefully we realise that here Sullivan is not feeling his way in unfamiliar territory. Rather we may find in these few bars an apotheosis of his matured harmonic resource." After
14784-439: The term opéra comique came to refer to any opera that included spoken dialogue, including works such as Cherubini's Médée and Bizet's Carmen that are not "comic" in any sense of the word. Florimond Hervé is credited as the inventor of French opéra bouffe , or opérette . Working on the same model, Jacques Offenbach quickly surpassed him, writing over ninety operettas . Whereas earlier French comic operas had
14916-943: The thirtieth anniversary of the same event Patriotic cantatas celebrating anniversaries of events in the Revolution or extolling state leaders were frequently commissioned in the Soviet Union between 1930 and the middle of the century, though these occasional works were seldom among their composers' best. Examples include Dmitri Shostakovich 's Poem of the Motherland , Op. 47 (1947) and The Sun Shines over Our Motherland , Op. 90 (1952), and three works by Prokofiev, Zdravitsa! [Hail to Stalin] (1939). Dmitry Kabalevsky also composed four such cantatas, The Great Homeland , Op. 35 (1941–42), The Song of Morning, Spring and Peace , Op. 57 (1957–58), Leninists , Op. 63 (1959), and About Our Native Land , Op. 82 (1965). In 1940,
15048-429: The triennial Leeds Music Festival in October 1886. He also was squiring Fanny Ronalds to numerous social functions. Fortunately, The Mikado was still playing strongly, and Sullivan prevailed on Gilbert to delay production of Ruddigore . He got down to business in early November, however, and rehearsals began in December. During the Act II ghost scene, it would be impossible for the cast to see Sullivan's baton when
15180-510: The turn of the 20th century, Franz Lehár wrote The Merry Widow (1905); Oscar Straus supplied Ein Walzertraum ("A Waltz Dream", 1907) and The Chocolate Soldier (1908); and Emmerich Kálmán composed Die Csárdásfürstin (1915). Zarzuela , introduced in Spain in the 17th century, is rooted in popular Spanish traditional musical theatre. It alternates between spoken and sung scenes,
15312-456: The unfavourable reception that the opera received on opening night, Gilbert and Sullivan made numerous significant cuts and alterations: Sullivan recorded in his diary: Gilbert and Sullivan made the following changes: The original vocal score, published in March 1887, represented this revised version of the musical text. A 1987 recording by the New Sadler's Wells Opera, for which David Russell Hulme
15444-562: The view of The Manchester Guardian , reviewing the Manchester premiere in March 1887, "The weakness of his central idea has led Mr Gilbert into extravagance without wit and parody without point." On 5 February 1887, The New York Times reported the change of name to Ruddigore. "In consequence of the criticisms on the piece, the second act has been changed. The pictures, with the exception of one, no longer come down from their frames. The houses are packed, as they always are in London, but
15576-443: The work was "received with every demonstration of delight by a distinguished and representative audience." The Observer also praised the piece, though allowing that it "lacks something of the sustained brilliance" of The Mikado . The Daily News applauded the innovation of Sullivan (who conducted, as usual, on the first night), of conducting with a baton tipped with a small incandescent light. Scholar Reginald Allen suggested that
15708-524: The world. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued to perform Gilbert and Sullivan almost continuously until it closed in 1982. The Gilbert and Sullivan style was widely imitated by their contemporaries (for example, in Dorothy ), and the creators themselves wrote works in this style with other collaborators in the 1890s. None of these, however, had lasting popularity, leaving the Savoy Operas as practically
15840-406: Was Hofkapellmeister at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt and provided over 1,400 cantatas during his nearly 50 years of employment there, making him the most significant contributor to the genre. While only a handful of Bach's cantatas contain accompanied chorales (the vocal parts are usually doubled by the instrumental parts), nearly all of Graupner's chorales feature elaborate ritornello sections. This
15972-404: Was adviser, restored most of the surviving material from the first-night version, including "For thirty-five years I've been sober and wary", as well as the extra music from the ghost scene. The recording and the production were based in part on Hulme's research, which also led to the 2000 Oxford University Press edition of the Ruddigore score, in which the music for some passages was published for
16104-424: Was also criticised: The Times stated, "The ghost scene ... of which preliminary notices and hints of the initiated had led one to expect much, was a very tame affair." The Era thought Sullivan's score "far from being fresh and spontaneous as is his wont". Not all newspapers were adversely critical. The Sunday Express headlined its review "Another Brilliant Success". The Sunday Times agreed and stated that
16236-508: Was an early precursor of opera buffa . The opera has a farcical plot, and the characters of the ridiculous guardian Trespolo and the maid Despina are prototypes of characters widely used later in the opera buffa genre. The form began to flourish in Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti 's Il trionfo dell'onore (1718). At first written in Neapolitan dialect, these works became "Italianized" with
16368-406: Was followed by the comic operas of other Italians, like Galuppi , Paisiello and Cimarosa , and also Belgian / French composer Grétry . The first Russian comic opera was Anyuta (1772). The text was written by Mikhail Popov , with music by an unknown composer, consisting of a selection of popular songs specified in the libretto. Another successful comic opera, The miller who was a wizard,
16500-423: Was found unsuitable ... and a new overture (which has been used ever since) was written by Geoffrey Toye. No precedents were followed and there is nothing Sullivanesque about it except the actual tunes; if one of them is momentarily developed in a manner that suggests a haunted ballroom rather than a haunted picture-gallery there is no great harm in that. In contrast to its predecessor, The Mikado , Ruddigore had
16632-523: Was included in every season until the winter of 1940–41, when the scenery and costumes (along with those of three other operas) were destroyed in enemy action. In Australia, no authorised production of Ruddigore was seen until 23 June 1927, at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide , produced by the J. C. Williamson company. A new D'Oyly Carte production debuted on 1 November 1948, with new costumes and an Act II set designed by Peter Goffin . From then on, it
16764-406: Was marked by noisy hubbub when Lord Randolph Churchill was spotted in the crowd, but a loud shout of "No politics!" brought relative calm. The second act, however, ended badly. On 23 January 1887, under the heading "Their First Flat Failure; The First Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Not a Success", The New York Times reported, "When the curtain finally fell there was hissing – the first ever heard in
16896-469: Was not altogether a success, as critics and the audience felt that Ruddygore (as it was then called) did not measure up to its predecessor, The Mikado . After some changes, including respelling the title, it achieved a run of 288 performances. The piece was profitable, and the reviews were not all bad. For instance, The Illustrated London News praised the work of both Gilbert and, especially, Sullivan: "Sir Arthur Sullivan has eminently succeeded alike in
17028-459: Was not revived during Gilbert and Sullivan's lifetimes. The first revival was in December 1920 in Glasgow, and the first London revival was the following year. The opera was cut and heavily revised, including a new overture and a new second-act finale. The revival was a success, and from that point on, Ruddigore was a permanent fixture in the D'Oyly Carte repertory until its closure in 1982. New costumes were designed by Percy Anderson in 1927. It
17160-482: Was played in every season through 1976–77, aside from 1962–63 (a season that included a lengthy overseas tour). New touring sets were designed by Goffin in 1957. In the late 1970s, the Company started to play a reduced repertory. Ruddigore was included in the 1976–77 tour, then for five months in 1978–1979; and finally in 1981–82. In 1987, the New Sadler's Wells Opera produced Ruddigore using
17292-518: Was still called in the review) was probably not so good as Patience or The Mikado , nor as "fresh" as H.M.S. Pinafore , but "it is better than ... Princess Ida , the Pirates , and Iolanthe ". The Musical Times called the work "one of the most brilliant examples which the associated art of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan has brought into existence," and said that Sullivan had "written some of his freshest and most delightful melodies." However, in
17424-681: Was the first playwright to adopt the term zarzuela for his work entitled El golfo de las sirenas ("The Gulf of the Sirens", 1657). Lope de Vega soon wrote a work titled La selva sin amor, drama con orquesta ("The Loveless Jungle, A Drama with Orchestra"). The instruments orchestra was hidden from the audience, the actors sang in harmony, and the musical composition itself was intended to evoke an emotional response. Some of these early pieces were lost, but Los celos hacen estrellas ("Jealousies Turn Into Stars") by Juan Hidalgo and Juan Vélez, which premiered in 1672, survives and gives us some sense of what
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