Claude Duval (opera)

Claude Duval – or Love and Larceny is a comic opera with music by Edward Solomon to a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens. The plot is loosely based on supposed events in the life of the seventeenth century highwayman, Claude Duval.

The piece was first produced at the Olympic Theatre, London, on 24 August 1881, under the management of Michael Gunn. It ran until the end of October. From January to March 1882, a D'Oyly Carte touring company played the work in the British provinces. Another D'Oyly Carte company played it in New York in March and April 1882 under Richard D'Oyly Carte's personal supervision, in tandem with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. In New York, a few local references were interpolated into Blood-red Bill's comic song, "William's Sure to Be Right."

In the 1882 D'Oyly Carte tour, which played in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, Duval was played by G. Byron Browne; Lorrimore by George Traverner; Blood-red Bill by George Thorne; McGruder by J. B Rae; Constance by Laura Clement; Rose by Kate Chard; Boscatt by H. Cooper Cliffe; and Mistress Betty by Miss Jones. Cooper Cliffe deputised for Browne who was taken ill in Edinburgh. In the New York company, Duval was played by William Carleton; Blood-red Bill by J. H. Ryley; Sir Whiffle Waffle by Arthur Wilkinson; and McGruder by W. H. Hamilton.

The following synopsis is condensed from the plot summary printed in The Era's review of the premiere.

In 1670 at Newmarket Heath, Duval's gang of highwaymen are disguised as gypsy fortune-tellers, and local maidens come to have their fortunes told. Charles Lorrimore arrives; he has attached himself to the losing faction at court and is fleeing from arrest. The gang captures him, but Duval has met Lorrimore before and likes him. Lorrimore tells Duval that he is in love with Constance, the niece of the old miser McGruder, who has gained possession of the Lorrimore estate. Soon a coach bearing McGruder and his two nieces crosses the Heath and is waylaid by the gang. Duval persuades Constance to dance a minuet with him and then she and her travelling companions are allowed to go on their way without further interference.

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