Recordings > Opera and Oratorio
SULLIVAN:
Ruddigore, or The Witch's Curse
Ellis, Glasener-Boles; Christopher, Reeder, Buck, Jesse; Ohio Light Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Borowitz. Texts. Albany TROY 1164-65 (2)
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Ruddigore is dismissed wrongly as second-rate Gilbert and Sullivan. Coming hard on the heels of The Mikado, the pair's quintessentially fresh masterpiece, Ruddigore was bound to suffer from invidious comparison with that gossamer confection. Hisses and boos issued from the 1889 opening-night audience, along with shouts of "Take off this rot!" and "Bring back The Mikado!" Critics scorned Ruddigore's shop-worn burlesque of "transpontine" melodramas — referring to the histrionic fare served in unfashionable theaters south of the Thames — that Gilbert had lampooned previously in The Sorcerer and H.M.S. Pinafore. Further, Gilbert recycled Ruddigore's chief Act II theatrical device — an ancestral portrait gallery coming to life — from his Ages Ago, written in 1869 (indeed, ages ago) with Frederic Clay. All agreed that the operetta needed drastic doctoring. Gilbert and Sullivan responded by substantially altering Act II and greatly reducing Ruddigore's running time, and far from the disaster threatened on opening night, Ruddigore ultimately ran a respectable 288 performances, causing Gilbert to quip, "I could do with a few more such failures." But Ruddigore was not revived again by D'Oyly Carte until 1920, and stalwart Savoyards argue that Ruddigore still does not get the air time that it merits.
To redress this slight, Ohio Light Opera has just released a full, two-disc recording of Ruddigore, restoring much of the musical material cut from the original (1889) G&S score. This restoration per se is not novel. Indeed, since the 1987 Sadler's Wells recording, many directors have experimented with restoring some or all of the cut material in place of the 1920s D'Oyly Carte version, with surprising results: the G&S Inner Brotherhood may wish to reconsider Robin's seldom-heard Act II patter song, "Henceforth all the crimes that I find in The Times," chopped after opening night but here restored by OLO.
All the performances are first-class. Ted Christopher (Robin), Cecily Ellis (Rose) and Anthony Buck (Richard) are delightful as the juvenile love triangle, and the character actors, Frederick Reeder (Despard), Dennis Jesse (Roderick), Sahara Glasener-Boles (Mad Margaret), Cory Clines (Adam) and Jesse Wright Martin (Hannah), are amusing while generally eschewing what Savoyards deride as "pork pie." Conductor Michael Borowitz exhibits absolute command over the wit and verve of Sullivan's unjustly neglected score. As usual, the OLO chorus sings with enthusiastic charm, especially the Act I madrigal, "When the Buds Are Blossoming," and the Act II showstopper, "When the Night Wind Howls."
TODD B. SOLLIS
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