“Oh willow, titwillow, titwillow!”
——:o:——
RUDDIGORE;
or, The Witch’s Curse.
This opera, produced at the Savoy Theatre on Saturday, January 22, 1887, did not at first receive that approval which the Press and the public have hitherto accorded to Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan’s pieces. Objection was taken to the title, and in deference to public opinion the first word was altered from Ruddygore to Ruddigore, whilst several passages which occur in the published version of the libretto are either altered, or omitted, in representation, and generally the piece runs more smoothly than it did when first produced.
That Mr. Gilbert himself had some mistrust of his own passion for logical paradoxes may be inferred from the fact that the following passage has, from the first, been omitted in the performance:
Rod. It’s not too late, is it?
Han. Oh Roddy! (bashfully).
Rod. I’m quite respectable now, you know.
Han. But you’re a ghost, ain’t you?