Opera · Opera in English

The Pirates of Penzance

31 December 1879, Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York

Arthur Sullivan · libretto by W. S. Gilbert

A young man apprenticed to a band of tender-hearted Cornish buccaneers by a deaf nursemaid's mistake reaches twenty-one and tries to leave, only to be told that because he was born on 29 February he has had just five birthdays and is indentured until 1940. Subtitled "The Slave of Duty", it is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to open in America — a deliberate move to stop the transatlantic piracy that had stripped them of the profits of their previous hit.

How to spot them

▸A band of orphan buccaneers who never harm an orphan, so every prize they take claims to be one
▸A leap-year paradox that keeps an apprentice bound until 1940
▸A Cornish coast, a ruined chapel by moonlight, and a company of reluctant policemen
▸A retired army officer with a great many daughters and an entirely bogus claim to be an orphan
▸Subtitled 'The Slave of Duty'

Arias & moments — listen

"I am the very model of a modern Major-General" — a patter song rhyming 'a lot o' news' with 'hypotenuse' (1879)

Major-General Stanley: vegetable, animal and mineral, fluent in matters mathematical, but hazy on soldiering

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Poor wand'ring one! Though thou hast surely strayed" — a coloratura waltz that answers a young man's plea for one maiden who will love him (1879)

Mabel's aria; her sisters have all refused, and she alone steps forward

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Oh, better far to live and die under the brave black flag I fly" — the buccaneer chief's credo that piracy is no worse than respectable trade (1879)

The Pirate King's song, ending 'It is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate King'

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"When the foeman bares his steel, tarantara! tarantara!" — constables sing of their courage while conspicuously not leaving (1879)

The Act 2 police chorus; the Sergeant follows it with 'When a felon's not engaged in his employment — a policeman's lot is not a happy one'

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry" — the opening chorus, and a toast to an apprentice out of his indentures (1879)

Samuel and the crew celebrate Frederic's twenty-first birthday

Recording: His Master's Voice · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

"With cat-like tread, upon our prey we steal" — a chorus of stealth bawled at full volume, later borrowed for 'Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here' (1879)

The Act 2 burglars' chorus, a parody of the Anvil Chorus manner

The whole band surrenders at once when told to yield in Queen Victoria's name, and turn out to be noblemen who have gone wrong (1879)

The finale; they are pardoned and married off to the Major-General's daughters

Quick-fire facts

•Premiered at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, on 31 December 1879, with Sullivan conducting — the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to open outside Britain.
•A perfunctory copyright performance, with the cast reading from scripts, was given the previous afternoon, 30 December 1879, at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, Devon.
•The American opening was a defence against the unauthorised productions that had swarmed over H.M.S. Pinafore; there was then no Anglo-American copyright treaty.
•The London premiere followed on 3 April 1880 at the Opera Comique, running 363 performances.
•Frederic was apprenticed to pirates because his nursemaid Ruth, a little hard of hearing, mistook 'pilot' for 'pirate'.
•Born on 29 February, Frederic is bound to serve until his twenty-first birthday, which by that reckoning falls in 1940.
•Sullivan had left part of the score in London and had to rewrite the Act 1 music in New York in the week before the opening.
•Joseph Papp's 1980 Broadway revival, with Kevin Kline as the Pirate King and Linda Ronstadt as Mabel, won Tony Awards and was filmed in 1983.
•It is, after The Mikado, the most frequently performed of the Savoy operas.

Drill it — 10 cards

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Sources

The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive — The Pirates of Penzance
Encyclopaedia Britannica — The Pirates of Penzance: operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan
Michael Ainger — Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography