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:^[52] Sullivan recorded in his diary:^[53]

• [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 January] Wrote and scored new song (second act) for Grossmith.
• [31 January]: Busy all day. Went to American consulate to sign agreement for American "Ruddygore". Finished score of new finale

"So far as I can see, there is only one strong and serious objection to "Ruddygore," and that is its hideous and repulsive title. What could possibly have incited Mr. W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan to court prejudice and provoke opposition by giving a gratuitously false impression to their most melodious and amusing work?"

Review from The Illustrated London News.[54]

Gilbert and Sullivan made the following changes:

• The initial title, Ruddygore, was changed: because of claims that "ruddy" was too similar to the then-taboo curse word "bloody", it was shortly changed to Ruddigore.^[55] Gilbert's response to being told they meant the same thing was: "Not at all, for that would mean that if I said that I admired your ruddy countenance, which I do, I would be saying that I liked your bloody cheek, which I don't."^[56]
• "I once was as meek" (No. 16) originally had two verses. In the cut second verse, Robin's servant says that he has changed his name from Adam Goodheart to Gideon Crawle since he is now a "bad Bart.'s steward." Old Adam is then referred to as "Gideon Crawle" or "Gideon" for the rest of Act II. After the cut, he remained Old Adam throughout, except for a single erroneous reference ("Gideon Crawle, it won't do!") which persisted in many librettos well into the 20th century.
• "In bygone days" (No. 18) was cut from two verses to one.
• "Painted emblems of a race" (No. 19) originally had two extra passages, including a March of the Ghosts after they descend from their frames, both of which were cut. (This alteration may have occurred before the premiere^[16]). The dialogue between Robin and the ghosts afterwards was also shortened.
• The patter song after the recitative "Away, remorse!" (No. 21a) was changed from "For thirty-five years I've been sober and wary" to "Henceforth all the crimes that I find in the Times". The rewriting of the song was prompted by a letter from Gilbert to Sullivan dated 23 January 1887: "I can’t help thinking that the second act would be greatly improved if the recitation before Grossmith’s song were omitted and the song re-set to an air that would admit of his singing it desperately – almost in a passion, the torrent of which would take him off the stage at the end. After a long and solemn ghost scene, I fancy a lachrymose song is quite out of place".^[57]
• Despard's and Margaret's stated (in No. 22) place of employment was changed from "a Sunday School" to "a National School."
• The dialogue scene among Robin, Despard and Margaret before the patter trio (No. 23) was shortened.
• The dialogue scene before "There grew a little flower" (No. 25) was considerably shortened; the first version exploring the topsy-turvy idea that if Sir Roderic and Dame Hannah were married, her husband would be a ghost, and she would therefore be a wife and a widow at the same time (this concept was recycled in The Grand Duke). Roderic originally entered through a trap door in the floor, where red flames could be seen shooting around him. This was changed to an entrance from the picture frame.
• The second revivification of the ghosts was dropped, with only Roderic being revived. Somewhat implausibly, this required the "chorus of Bucks and Blades" from Act I to be present at the castle at the end of Act II, to provide a four-part chorus for the finale.
• The finale was revised and extended, ending with a common-time reworking of "Oh happy the lily", rather than a straight reprise as previously.^[16]

The original vocal score, published in March 1887, represented this revised version of the musical text.^[16] A 1987 recording by the New Sadler's Wells Opera, for which David Russell Hulme was adviser, restored most of the surviving material from the first-night version, including "For thirty-five years I've been sober and wary", as well as the extra music from the ghost scene. The recording and the production were based in part on Hulme's research, which also led to the 2000 Oxford University Press edition of the Ruddigore score, in which the music for some passages was published for the first time.^[16]

Revisions in the 1920s

Ruddigore was not revived professionally during the authors' lifetimes. When it received its first professional revival in December 1920 in Glasgow – and then in London, in October 1921 – the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company made a number of further cuts and changes that were incorporated in scores and used in subsequent D'Oyly Carte productions and recordings.^[16][58] David Russell Hulme, editor of the Oxford University Press 2000 scholarly edition of the score, has attributed the cuts and other changes to the music principally to Harry Norris, musical director of the D'Oyly Carte at the time of the Glasgow revival, and the modifications to the opera's orchestration, as well as the new overture, to Geoffrey Toye. He concluded that some lesser changes may have been made by Malcolm Sargent, but in a few cases Hulme was uncertain as to which conductor was responsible for which change.^[16][59]
The most conspicuous changes were as follows:

• Geoffrey Toye, the D'Oyly Carte musical director for the first London revival in 1921, supplied a new overture to replace the original overture arranged by Hamilton Clarke.
• The playoffs to the Act I numbers "Sir Rupert Murgatroyd" (No. 2) and "If somebody there chanced to be" (No. 3) were shortened.
• In the Act I song "My boy, you may take it from me" (No. 7), the repetitions of the introduction were omitted, and only the last repeat with Richard was retained.
• The Act I duet "The battle's roar is over" (No. 8) was cut.
• Some cuts were made within the Act I finale (No. 15) to shorten transitions between sections.
• Drum rolls and other orchestral effects were added to the ghost scene in Act II (Nos. 19–20)
• The Act II recitative and patter song "Away, remorse" ... "Henceforth all the crimes" (No. 21a) was cut.
• The "Melodrame" (No. 24) was cut.
• The Act II finale was replaced. The finale as composed and revised by Sullivan had consisted of "When a man has been a naughty baronet," plus a modified reprise of "Oh, happy the lily" in 4/4 time. The replacement (ironically rather closer to Sullivan's discarded original) was a straight reprise of "Oh, happy the lily" in the form it had taken in the Act I finale, in 9/8 time.

The standard Chappell vocal score was revised in the late 1920s to reflect these changes, except that the "Melodrame" and "The battle's roar is over" continued to be printed. The G. Schirmer vocal score published in America agreed with the revised Chappell score, except that it also included Robin's Act II recitative and patter song "Henceforth all the crimes" and both versions of the Act II finale.
Until the Oxford University Press edition was published in 2000, the available orchestral parts reflected many of the standard D'Oyly Carte alterations, although the traditionally cut songs were available to those who wanted them. The Oxford edition has led to an increased interest in the opera as Gilbert and Sullivan wrote it and has made it easier to restore passages deleted from the opera. Due to the many different editions available and the work's complex textual history, there is no standard performing version of Ruddigore.
Comparing the two extant overtures, Gervase Hughes wrote:

[T]he original overture to Ruddigore ... is a crude "selection" hardly redeemed by its spirited ending. The final cadence is by no means typical of Sullivan. In this overture a "double chorus" ... is taken complete from the opera – an unsatisfactory move because it vitiates its effect in the proper place. Nor is the orchestration of the passage particularly skilful. ... When Ruddigore was revived after some thirty-four years this jumble was found unsuitable ... and a new overture (which has been used ever since) was written by Geoffrey Toye. No precedents were followed and there is nothing Sullivanesque about it except the actual tunes; if one of them is momentarily developed in a manner that suggests a haunted ballroom^[60] rather than a haunted picture-gallery there is no great harm in that.^[61]