In some ways it is
almost a miracle that this recording
was ever made. Ruddigore was considered
a failure in its day and, despite Gilbert
and Sullivan’s prominence, took a great
deal of time to be fully accepted as
a great musical. Its early problems
included the set falling apart during
the initial haunting scene and a general
row about the name (originally spelled
"Ruddygore" and considered
in very poor taste by the Victorian
press-men). Gilbert’s libretto was also
considered poor. Additionally it was
viewed as a novelty work and highly
derivative. The famous "gallery
of ghosts" scene was actually a
reworking of a scene from an earlier
Gilbert and Clay show, Ages Ago.
However, Ruddigore was reworked
shortly after its opening night and
went on to run for 288 original performances
over the course of eight months. Even
so, until its revival in the 1920s it
was not considered a particularly worthy
work. In subsequent days it was able
to find its way back into acceptance.
At its heart, Ruddigore
is a parody of the stock melodrama.
It comes complete with a disguised hero,
a mustachioed villain that kidnaps the
dimwitted but virtuous and beautiful
young heroine, and the insane girl who
lends clues that drive the plot forward.
The point, however, was to turn the
tradition on its head, making good become
bad, requiring villainous actions to
get to heroic ends, and having the heroes
take the easy way out.
The plot, briefly,
is that the village girls don’t stand
a chance at marriage because all the
young men of the village love Rose Maybud.
However none of them measure up to her
strict etiquette. Enter Robin Oakapple,
who also loves Rose but is too shy to
court her. He is then shown to be the
Duke of Ruddigore in disguise who, if
he were to claim his birthright, would
be cursed to commit one major crime
per day or die in agony. So he runs
away, leaving his brother Despard to
fulfill his role in both the curse and
the government. Robin's foster brother,
Richard also wants to woo Rose for himself.
When he sees Robin he tells Despard
of the deception. Despard then transfers
the curse back to Robin. Subsequently
the ghosts of the former Dukes of Ruddigore
come forth to chastise Robin and enforce
the curse or leave him to an agonizing
death. However Robin finds a subtle
contradiction in the curse. In a moment
that reminds one of a Star Trek computer
self-destructing due to a logical paradox,
Robin notes that it is considered a
major crime to commit suicide. Since
it is essentially suicide to not commit
the crime, he is committing a major
crime by not committing a major crime
... which suddenly seems to lead to
the reanimation of one of his recent
ancestors, Sir Roderick, who can then
marry his love Hannah.
If all of that seems
a bit confusing, don’t worry. It really
wasn’t intended to make a great deal
of sense. It is a farce in the very
Victorian sense of the word. You can
be assured that it does end up being
just coherent enough to make the play
quite enjoyable. Gilbert himself considered
this to be one of his three favorite
works, and it is now part of the standard
repertoire in any respectable Gilbert
and Sullivan company.
Thus Ruddigore is now
part of the respected canon from Gilbert
& Sullivan. As such one must consider
the worthiness of the recording more
than the play. This particular one was
made as the D’Oyly Carte Company was
performing it in 1950, which means that
there are several cuts. The most notable
elisions are two of Robin’s works: the
Act II recitative and the patter song
"Away remorse". Also it must
be said that Ann Drummond-Grant's Mad
Margaret is rather lackluster. Aside
from that, the rest of the cast is quite
good, and this recording is oft studied
as a model for modern resurrections
of the play. Leonard Osborne does a
notably good job as Richard, and Martyn
Greene does well playing the youthful
farm-boy Robin.
Aside from Ann Drummond-Grant,
the sound fidelity of the original recordings
must be in question. While the recordings
are old and masters probably not well
preserved, one would wish that the engineers
would at last have worked at achieving
better equalization. There is a notable
lack at both ends of the audible spectrum.
It sounds very much like the entire
recording was passed through a mid-range
compression filter in order to remove
extraneous noise. While this is the
ideal means of resurrecting the spoken
word, the result for music recordings
is often that the sacrifice of fidelity
in exchange for noise reduction is too
great. When the full chorus comes in
during such works as "Happily Coupled
are we" or "In bygone days
I had the love" there is a hollowness
to the sound that seems unfulfilling
to the casual listener.
All told, this is one
of the noted recordings of Ruddigore.
It is difficult to criticize it too
harshly, as the performance is certainly
a landmark. It provides direction to
performances given today. The sound
fidelity is not bad, per se. This recording
seems predominantly directed towards
those already familiar with the play
and already hardcore Gilbert & Sullivan
fans. For this audience, this recording
of Ruddigore is a success. For the casual
fan, the New Sadler’s Wells recording
from 1987 is probably a better choice.
Patrick Gary
D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Isadore
Godfrey
