Opera Plots I - MDC Faculty Home Pages

coquettish maiden, in order to punish her backward lover, shows great favour to the ambassador,
and even announces that she thinks seriously of marrying him, to the great dismay of the
disconsolate Robin and the huge delight of the jolly gobetween. At this moment Sir Despard
arrives in the village, and, recognising Robin as his brother, compels him to return to the Castle
and take on his rightful title, together with the family curse, of which he is himself heartily sick,
and greatly relieved to be rid of. Rose Maybud, though sorry for the fate of her lover, flatly refuses
to wed a " Bold, Bad Baronet," and is inclined to show favour to the released Sir Despard; but the
latter is soon seized upon by Mad Margaret, a village girl whose undoing has provided scope for
one of his daily crimes when under the Witchs Curse.
In Act 2 Robin is found installed at Ruddygore Castle as Sir Ruthven, where, being now under the
family curse, his servant, Adam, is kept constantly busy hunting up daily crimes for him to
commit. The unhappy and bored Wicked Baronet, having had quite enough of crime at the end of
the first week, retires to the Portrait Gallery of the Castle; and here, to his surprise and dismay, the
various dead and gone Murgatroyd Baronets, whose portraits ornament the walls, all come to life
again, and, stepping down from their frames, declare that Robin will presently meet with a terrible
and lingering death unless he at once makes arrangements for the abduction of some unwilling
lady. Finally, however, the brilliant discovery is made that the Baronets of Ruddygore, according
to the correct reading of the curse, can only die by declining to carry out the daily crime;
whereupon the revivified ancestors, realizing that, since they did not refuse to perform the evil
deeds required of them, they ought none of them to have died, and that as the curse has thus never
been properly carried out, it is now null and void. Having, therefore, come back to life they now
refuse to return to their frames; and when the Professional Bridesmaids presently appear on the
scene they pair off very contentedly with them. Mad Margaret and Sir Despard also pair off; and
since Robin, being freed from the curse, can no longer be regarded as a Bad Baronet, Rose
Maybud very gladly consents to marry him, and the scene ends with a merry revel.
164. THE SORCERER
Comic Operetta in Two Acts By Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan
Libretto By Sir W. S. Gilbert
First Produced London, November, 1877
Chief Characters Lady Sangazure, Aline, Constance, Mrs Partlet, J. W. Wells ( The Sorcerer),
Alexis, Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre, Dr Daly
IN Act 1 the villagers are gathered in the grounds of Sir Marmaduke Pointdextre to witness the
signing of the marriage contract between his son Alexis, and Aline, daughter of the aristocratic
Lady Sangazure, with whom Sir Marmaduke was himself in love in his early youth. Amongst the
merrymakers is Constance, the daughter of Mrs Partlet, the pew-opener; and of all the gay throng
she is the only unhappy one. On inquiring the reason for her sadness Mrs Partlet learns that the girl
has fallen in love with the elderly vicar, Dr Daly; but the worthy doctor is too dense to realise the
conquest he has made, in spite of the broad hints given him by the matchmaking old dame. When
the notary arrives, with Sir Marmaduke and Lady Sangazure, the betrothal contract is signed; and
when the lovers are left alone Alexis tells Aline that, in order to test the working of his pet theory
that love and marriage should always be consummated without any regard to the worldly