The baronets of Ruddigore have been cursed by witches to commit a crime every single day. But one futurebaron has avoided this fate: Ruthven Murgatroyd (pronounced “Riven”) has snuck away under the identity ofRobin Oakapple a lush, rich baritone. Oakapple falls in love with Rose Maybud, in the instantaneous way loversalways do in such love stories. Ruddigore is meant to be a parody of English Victorian melodrama, but theconceits are still entirely familiar even though the genre has long since vanished.