Editing Ruddigore (section)

==Background==
[[File:Amédée Forestier - Illustrated London News - Gilbert and Sullivan - Ruddygore (Ruddigore).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Amédée Forestier]]'s illustration of scenes in ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', before the opera's name change.]]

After ''[[The Mikado]]'' opened in 1885, Gilbert, as usual, promptly turned his thoughts to finding 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.<ref>Charnell-White, Michael.  "The Black Arts", ''The Musical Times'', July 1992, pp. 327–28</ref> Locals claim that the Murgatroyd ancestors in ''Ruddigore'' are based on the [[Murgatroyd]] family of [[East Riddlesden Hall]], [[West Yorkshire]].<ref>[http://archive.cravenherald.co.uk/2003/10/17/106736.html Article claiming that Murgatroyd family of East Riddlesden Hall is basis for Ruddigore's Murgatroyds]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.  See also [https://web.archive.org/web/20030102084120/http://www.touruk.co.uk:80/houses/houseyorkshire_eastriddlesden.htm this]. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> 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.<ref name=dark103>Dark and Grey, p. 103</ref> Sir Roderic's Act II song "When the night wind howls" had its forerunner in one of Gilbert's verses published in ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]'' magazine in 1869:

<blockquote><poem>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!<ref name=dark103 /><ref>"The Ghost to his Ladye Love", ''Fun'', vol. IX, 14 August 1869</ref></poem></blockquote>

The opera also includes and parodies elements of [[melodrama]], popular at the [[Adelphi Theatre]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gsarchive.net/ruddigore/html/intro.html |title=Information about Ruddigore from the book "Tit-Willow or Notes and Jottings on Gilbert and Sullivan Operas" by Guy H. and Claude A. Walmisley |access-date=13 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001162103/https://www.gsarchive.net///ruddigore/html/intro.html |archive-date=1 October 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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]],<ref>Although the dramatic ghost music has become a popular feature of productions of ''Ruddigore'', W. S. Gilbert wrote that he wished that the music had been more comic. See Stedman, p. 242</ref> and so forth.  But Gilbert, in his customary topsy-turvy fashion, turns 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 (cantata)|The Golden Legend]]'', for the triennial [[Leeds Festival (classical music)|Leeds Music Festival]] in October 1886.<ref>Jacobs, pp. 226 and 245</ref> 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''.<ref>Baily, p. 289</ref> He got down to business in early November, however, and rehearsals began in December.<ref>Jacobs, p. 246</ref> During the Act II ghost scene, it would be impossible for the cast to see Sullivan's baton when 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.<ref>Baily, p. 293</ref>

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".<ref>[http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/ruddigore/rud1.html "Gilbert and Sullivan's New Opera", ''The Monthly Musical Record''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819150814/http://www.savoyoperas.org.uk/ruddigore/rud1.html |date=19 August 2008 }}, 1 February 1887, 17, pp. 41–42, retrieved 17 June 2008</ref> After a run shorter than any of the earlier Gilbert and Sullivan operas premiered at 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 [[The Crystal Palace|Crystal Palace]], on 8 and 9 November.<ref>"At the Play", ''[[The Observer]]'', 6 November 1887, p. 2; and ''The Times'', 8 November 1887, p. 1</ref> It was not revived in the lifetimes of the composer or author.