The Pretty Druidess

The plot of the piece was loosely based on Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 opera Norma, with dialogue in rhyming couplets full of complicated word-play and dreadful puns.

(1867), The Merry Zingara; or, the Tipsy Gipsy and the Pipsy Wipsy (1868) and Robert the Devil, or The Nun, the Dun, and the Son of a Gun (1868) had parodied comic or romantic operas.

It was the last of three pieces on the bill, following a short operetta, Coming of Age, and the main item of the evening, a three-act drama, Edendale, about families split by the American Civil War.

[4] The hero, Pollio (a tenor in Bellini's original), was played as a breeches role by Cecily Nott, another favourite, who had made her debut in 1851, aged 18 or 19, a protégée of Louis Antoine Jullien.

[3][4] On the opening night, 19 June 1869, the performance started late because of noisy protests from patrons in the cheap standing area, the pit, about the lack of programmes.

The theatrical paper The Era reported, "Although it was nearly half an hour after midnight before the curtain fell, the jokes rattled rapidly off through continuous laughter, and Mr. Gilbert was summoned at the end to receive the congratulations of the house.

"[3] The Pretty Druidess was the last of a series of about a dozen early comic stage works by Gilbert, including operatic burlesques, pantomimes and farces.

Norma addresses the audience with a plea for indulgence: The numbers printed in the libretto are: Reporting on the first night, The Era mentioned a parody on "Rise Gentle Moon",[13] sung by Pollio "with good effect".

The story is perverted with great ingenuity, the lines are as remarkable for correctness of rhythm as for their abundance of puns, and the parodies are written with unusual care to some of the prettiest melodies in the operatic and lyrical repertory.

"[16] The Morning Post praised the piece highly and added, "as usually happens in burlesques from the pen of Mr. Gilbert, the writing is of a higher order than in the generality of productions in this irreverent department of dramatic literature."

Despite Norma's apology for "the scantiness of our apparel", the critic added the reservation that it was not scant enough: "the long dresses in which the female personages are for the most part attired detract from the smartness of the action and the picturesqueness of the general effect.