the music we hear Sullivan not only in his most tuneful vein but also as a master of more subtle rhythms than he commands elsewhere. Moreover, the parody is one that all can enjoy to the full, for here the satire is not pointed at a coterie, nor at this or that æsthetic movement, but at the absurdities of a melodramatic tradition which is nearly as old as the stage itself. In 1984, Arthur Jacobs rated Ruddigore "One of the weaker of Gilbert's librettos, it was seen (especially after the freshness of invention in The Mikado) to be rather obviously relying on brushed-up ideas.... The plot is supposedly a burlesque of what was 'transpontine' melodrama.... But that brand of melodrama was itself hardly alive enough to be made fun of. As the Weekly Dispatch put it: 'If stage work of the kind caricatured in Ruddygore or The Witch's Curse is not extinct, it is relegated to regions unfrequented by the patrons of Mr D'Oyly Carte's theatre'." Analysis of music and text Musical content The Sullivan scholar Gervase Hughes characterised Sir Roderic's song "When the night wind howls" as "unquestionably the finest piece of descriptive music that Sullivan ever wrote, worthy of a place beside Schubert's Erlkönig, Wagner's overture to The Flying Dutchman, and well above Saint-Saëns' Danse macabre, all of which are tone-paintings in a similar colour. Although the vocal score gives not a hint of the uncanny brilliance of the orchestration, it demonstrates the sure footholds by which the music in a round dozen bars finds its way from D minor to A flat major and back and the shattering impact of the fortissimo chorus entry at an interrupted cadence on the chord of B flat major. The progressions that follow look to be unusual, but if we study them carefully we realise that here Sullivan is not feeling his way in unfamiliar territory. Rather we may find in these few bars an apotheosis of his matured harmonic resource." Versions Changes during the initial run After the unfavourable reception that the opera received on opening night, Gilbert and Sullivan made numerous significant cuts and alterations: Sullivan recorded in his diary: [23 January 1887]: Gilbert and Carte came. Pow-wow. Several changes and cuts decided on. [24 January]: Alterations made in finale [2nd act]: ghosts not brought back to life. [25 January]: Long rehearsal for cuts and changes (without band). [30