"With its colorful design, talented singers, wonderful musicians, an intriguing script, and wonderful score, Ruddigore or The Witch’s Curse is by far the best Victorian Lyric Opera Company production I have ever seen. Gilbert and Sullivan fans should embrace this opportunity before it is too late." - DCMetroTheaterArts
"Ruddigore is a witty, charming, hilarious evening, not just for fans of Gilbert and Sullivan but for anybody willing to be delighted by musical theater. This play and this production should not be missed." -TheatreBloom

Gilbert & Sullivan's
Ruddigore
or, The Witch's Curse

June 11, 12, 13, 19 & 20, 2015 at 8pm
June 14**, 20** & 21, 2015 at 2pm

Directed by Helen Aberger
Music Direction by Joseph Sorge

The F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre
Rockville Civic Center
603 Edmonston Dr. Rockville, MD 20851

**Community Outreach Matinees on 6/14 & 6/20: Backstage tours and a special craft activity for kids beginning at 12:45pm. There will be a talk-back session with cast and crew immediately following the performance.

Adults: $24, Seniors: $20, Students: $16 

Tickets can also be purchased by calling the box office at 
240-314-8690.

Box Office Hours of Operation:
Closed Monday 
Tuesday through Saturday 
2 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Open two hours prior to every ticketed performance
VLOC encourages our patrons to introduce new audiences to the performing arts at young age. This production of Ruddigore is appropriate for audience members of all ages.
Ruddigore is supported in part by funding from the Montgomery County government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
Special Events!

Thursday, June 11th - 8pm
Half-price performance! Only $12!

Saturday, June 13th - 7pm
Pre-show lecture on Ruddigore & Melodrama 
presented by Helen Aberger, director of Ruddigore, and 
Felicity Ann Brown, University of Maryland's Librarian for Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

Sunday, June 14th - 12:45pm
Community Outreach Matinee - bring the whole family!
Backstage tours and a special craft activity for kids beginning at 12:45pm. There will also be a talk-back session with cast and crew immediately following the performance.

Saturday, June 20th - 12:45pm
Community Outreach Matinee - bring the whole family!
Backstage tours and a special craft activity for kids beginning at 12:45pm. There will also be a talk-back session with cast and crew immediately following the performance.

Roles

Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd/Robin Oakapple - Joshua Hughes
Richard Dauntless - Joseph Wilson
Sir Despard Murgatroyd - Blair Eig (6/11, 6/13, 6/20 mat., 6/21) &                                                         Michael Beder (6/12, 6/14, 6/19, 6/20 eve.)
Sir Roderic Murgatroyd - Tom Goode
Old Adam Goodheart - Joshua Milton
Rose Maybud - Keely Borland (6/12, 6/14, 6/19, 6/20 eve.) & 
                             Emma Jensen (6/11, 6/13, 6/20 mat., 6/21)
Mad Margaret - Amanda Jones (6/12, 6/14, 6/19, 6/20 eve.) &
                             Carla Rountree (6/11, 6/13, 6/20 mat., 6/21)
Dame Hannah - Mary Mitchell
Zorah - Kris Devine
Ruth - Margot Perry

Chorus - Kevin Caughlin, Denise Cross, Kayla Cummings, Rick DuPuy, Noah Friedlander, Lena Goldweber, Chuck Howell, Ralph Johnson, Gabriella Jones, Joshua Katz, Jennifer Lauren Lee, Carlton Maryott, Jane Maryott, Stevie Miller, Roger Porres, Bill Rogers, Sarah Seider, Stephanie Shade, Maria Wilson, Kent Woods

Production Staff

Producer - Denise Young
Assistant Conductor - Rebecca Henry
Assistant Music Director & Accompanist  - Jenny Craley Bland
Stage Manager/Assistant to Director - Doug Maryott
Assistant Choreographer - Sara Collins
Lighting Design - A. Dawson Smith
Costume Design  - Jesse Shipley
Set Design  - Bill Pressly
Makeup Design - Renee Silverstone
Master Carpenter/Assistant Stage Manager - Devin Work
Props - Carl and Jane Maryott
Dialect Coach -  Gary Sullivan

Orchestra

Violin I - Steve Natrella (CM), Bonnie Barrows, Carolyn Larson, 
                Irv Berner
Violin II - Peter Mignerey, Martin Brown, Audrey Chang, 
                 Edwin Schneider, Andrew Nixon
Viola - Amanda Laudwein, E. Foley
Bass - Ross Capon
Cello - Michael Stein, Sheryl Friedlander
Flute - Jackie Miller, Louise Hill
Oboe - Gwen Earle
Bassoon - Betsy Haanes
Clarinet - Laura Langbein, Laura Bornhoeft
Horn - Joe Cross, Gail Hixenbaugh, Lora Katz
Trumpet - Curt Anstine, Rick Pasciuto, Tom Gleason
Trombone - Steve Ward, Frank Eliot, Al Potter
Percussion - George Huttlin

Director's Note

Overshadowed in its time by the success of Gilbert & Sullivan's previous work The Mikado, Ruddigore was and is not often produced. On its face, it's a rather bizarre story about ridiculous characters with whom it is difficult to sympathize. Without context, modern day audiences can be left feeling like they've missed a greater point.

At its inception, however, Ruddigore was conceived as a parody of British melodrama- a popular theater genre in the 1880s. Melodrama features stock characters and plots- for example, a noble and heroic tenor loves the beautiful and chaste maiden but is thwarted by a villainous baritone. Gilbert and Sullivan turned this on its head and produced a story about a flighty soprano who is loved afar by a cursed comic baritone in disguise and is temporarily swept away by a roguish tenor sailor. Audiences in 1887 would've been familiar with the stock melodrama characters and been amused by the lampooning.

But not all the twists are turns- Gilbert's characters defy complete categorization as good or bad, wrong or right- they actually live in a grey area of real, human qualities. And this is what we present day audiences can hang our hats on- who hasn't put on airs to be someone they are not? Who hasn't listened to their hearts dictates under the premise of doing right but ultimately served themselves? Who hasn't bowed to societal pressures? Through parody, reality peeks out to reveal how "topsy-turvy" life can be.

I am delighted to present you with a traditional treatment of the operetta Ruddigore with a corps of fantastic artists, all of them here for their love of the art form. Gilbert & Sullivan are their own animal in the opera world – loved fiercely by their fans and looked sometimes skeptically upon by opera seria buffs – but their works have endured. I invite you to enjoy this seldom performed work and hope you come back for more!
                                                                                                                                - Helen Aberger, Director

Synopsis

Act I - The Fishing Village of Reddering, in Cornwall
An early Baronet of Ruddigore had a witch burned at the stake, and she cursed him and all his line dooming them to commit at least one crime a day, under penalty of dying in unspeakable agony. Dame Hannah narrates this legend to the Chorus of Professional Bridesmaids, gathered around the cottage of Rose Maybud, an attractive young damsel who has not yet found a husband. Robin Oakapple, a young farmer, is in love with Rose but is too bashful to declare his passion. We now learn through Adam, an old retainer, that Robin is really Sir Ruthven (pronounced "Riven") Murgatroyd, the true Baronet of Ruddigore, who has fled from the Curse, leaving it, with the title and estates, to his younger brother, Despard. His foster-brother, Richard Dauntless, who has just returned from the sea, also knows Robin's true identity. Learning of the deadlock in Robin's love affair, Richard volunteers to see the lady and clear up the situation. On meeting Rose, however, he too falls in love with her, and, as his guiding principle is to obey "the dictates of his heart", avows his love to her, and is accepted. But when Rose learns of Robin's love for her, she promptly transfers her affections to him, remarking that while Richard is a penniless sailor, Robin is a prosperous farmer. Mad Margaret enters, and we learn that she had been in love with the present bad baronet, Despard. In a song, Despard reveals the depths of his infamy, but notes that he makes a point of atoning for every bad action by following it with a good one. Richard, still obeying the "dictates of his heart,” reveals to him that his brother, Sir Ruthven, is alive, and is in this very village, masquerading as Robin Oakapple. Robin now enters with his promised bride and the Chorus of Bridesmaids to celebrate the nuptials. But the wedding is rudely interrupted by the revelation that Robin is really the Bad Baronet. Rose promptly offers herself to Despard, who declares that he being no longer the Bad Baronet but a virtuous person, will be true to Mad Margaret. So Rose, not at all abashed, once more falls back on Richard, and a dance ends the first act.

Act II -The Picture Gallery in Ruddigore Castle
The second act takes place in the gloomy Picture Gallery of Ruddigore Castle, where the portraits of his ancestors look grimly down upon a sadly changed Robin. Richard and Rose dance in with their train of Bridesmaids to ask Robin's consent to their marriage. After some trouble, they obtain it, and depart. Robin then makes an impassioned appeal to his ancestors to relieve him of the 9 necessity of doing a daily crime. Stepping down from their frames, and led by his uncle Roderic, they accuse him of evading the terms of the Curse, and order him to do something really wicked--carry off a maiden that very day. When he refuses, they give him a sample of the "agonies" they have the power to inflict, and he is compelled to yield. The ancestors return to their frames and Robin orders Adam to go at once and bring him a maiden---any maiden! A reformed Despard and Margaret now appear, soberly attired, and describe themselves as District Visitors engaged in charitable activities. They have come to implore Robin to foreswear his wicked ways. He declares he will do so, when, upon their departure, Adam enters with the "maiden"' he was sent to abduct. She turns out to be none other than the mature Dame Hannah, who proves so well able to protect herself that Robin has to call upon his uncle Roderic for help. Roderic steps down from his frame, and we learn that he and Hannah were once lovers. Robin is summarily dismissed, and the reunited pair indulge in a sentimental duet. Their reunion is interrupted by the excited entrance of Robin---he has the solution of the whole business. Pointing out that, as a refusal to fulfil the terms of the Curse amounts to suicide, and as suicide is itself a crime, is follows that the Curse is inoperative! So Roderic finds that he must still be alive, Rose at once becomes the bride of a reformed Robin. Richard appropriates the chief bridesmaid and all ends in general rejoicing.

Credit: Sullivan, Arthur, W. S. Gilbert, and Edmond W. Rickett. Ruddigore, or, The Witch’s Curse. New York: G. Schirmer, 1953.

Musical Selections

Act I - The fishing village of Rederring in Cornwall
  • Fair is Rose (Bridesmaids & Zorah)
  • Sir Rupert Murgatroyd (Dame Hannah and Bridesmaids)
  • If somebody there chanced to be (Rose)
  • I know a youth (Robin & Rose)
  • From the briny sea/I shipped d'ye see (Bridesmaids & Richard
  • My boy, you may take it from me (Robin & Richard)
  • The battle's roar is over (Richard & Rose)
  • If well his suit has sped (Bridesmaids)
  • In sailing o'er life's ocean wide (Rose, Richard, & Robin)
  • Cheerily carols the lark (Mad Margaret)
  • Welcome, gentry (Chorus)
  • Oh, why am I moody and sad? (Sir Despard & Chorus)
  • You understand? (Sir Despard & Richard)
  • Hail the bride (Ensemble)
Act II - Picture Gallery in Ruddigore Castle
  • I once was as meek (Robin and Adam)
  • Happily coupled are we (Richard, Rose, & Bridesmaids)
  • In bygone days (Rose, Robin, RIchard, & Bridesmaids)
  • Painted emblems of a race (Ancestors, Robin, & Sir Roderic)
  • When the night wind howls (Sir Roderic & Ancestors)
  • He yields! (Ancestors)
  • Away, Remorse!/For thirty-five years (Robin)
  • I once was a very abandoned person (Sir Despard & Mad Margaret)
  • My eyes are fully open (Robin, Sir Despard, Mad Margaret)
  • Melodrama
  • There grew a little flower (Dame Hannah & Sir Roderic)
  • When a man has been a naughty baronet (Ensemble)
  • Oh, happy the lily (Ensemble)