Composed during and after the First World War, but not premiered until 1924, "Hugh the Drover" is an opera by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). "Drover" is an old English word meaning someone who drives cattle or sheep, but although the eponymous hero does, indeed, follow that calling, in the opera his pugilistic skills are more to the forefront than his pastoral ones.

In the first of the two acts, Hugh, at a local fair, enters a prize fight with the local butcher - the prize being the hand in marriage of Mary, the Constable's daughter. The butcher is a rough, cruel man, and Mary dreads the thought of marriage to him and dreams of freedom. Hugh wins the fight, but is accused of being a spy, and led off to the stocks. However, there is to be a happy ending. When a platoon of soldiers arrive to escort him to custody, their sergeant recognises Hugh as a man who once saved his life. He is freed, and John, instead, is press-ganged into the army.

Although a 20th century composition, the work uses many of the devices of the much older Ballad Opera style, perhaps most famously employed by Rich and Gay in the "Beggar's Opera".

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