A number of reports have appeared in the press relating to the John Lewis production of this piece, all of them very favourable. It seems I must be the only critic to pan it. Winton Dean in Musical Times comments:- "Dating from 1877, it was very successful in Paris and even more so in London the following year; at least one of its tunes lodged in Sullivan's memory and won further popularity, little altered, in The Pirates of Penzance. The libretto, though conventional and obviously indebted to La Dame Blanche produces amusing situations and manages to keep a surprise for the third act." My opinion of the opera is unaltered, but I could well be wrong in my judgement. We are but fallible mortals the best of us. M.W.

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