The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is acomic opera in two acts, with music byArthur Sullivan andlibretto byW. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at theFifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where it was well received by both audiences and critics.[1] Its London debut was on 3 April 1880, at theOpera Comique, where it ran for 363 performances.
The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets the daughters of the incompetent Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on 29 February, and so, technically, he has a birthday only once eachleap year. Hisindenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday", meaning that he must serve for another 63 years.[a] Bound by his own sense of duty to honour his bond with the pirates, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. The pirates' maid-of-all-work, Ruth, eventually reveals a fact that saves the day.
Pirates was the fifthGilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied "Major-General's Song". The opera was performed for over a century by theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain until the copyrights expired and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions includeJoseph Papp's 1981Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning theTony Award for Best Revival and theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical, and spawning many imitations and a1983 film adaptation.Pirates remains popular today, taking its place along withThe Mikado andH.M.S. Pinafore as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
The Pirates of Penzance was the onlyGilbert and Sullivan opera to have its official premiere in the United States. At the time, American law offered nocopyright protection to foreigners. After the pair's previous opera,H.M.S. Pinafore, achieved success in London in 1878, approximately 150 American companies quickly mounted unauthorised productions that often took considerable liberties with the text and paid no royalties to the creators.[2][3][4] Gilbert and Sullivan hoped to forestall further "copyright piracy" by mounting the first production of their next opera in America, before others could copy it, and by delaying publication of the score and libretto.[5] They succeeded in keeping for themselves the direct profits of the first American production ofThe Pirates of Penzance by opening the production themselves on Broadway, prior to the London production, and they also operated profitable US touring companies ofPirates andPinafore.[2] However, Gilbert, Sullivan, and their producer,Richard D'Oyly Carte, failed in their efforts, over the next decade, to control the American performance copyrights toPirates and their other operas.[6]
Fiction and plays about pirates were ubiquitous in the 19th century.[7]Walter Scott'sThe Pirate (1822) andJames Fenimore Cooper'sThe Red Rover were key sources for the romanticised, dashing pirate image and the idea of repentant pirates.[8] Both Gilbert and Sullivan had parodied these ideas early in their careers. Sullivan had written a comic opera,The Contrabandista, in 1867, about a hapless British tourist who is captured by bandits and forced to become their chief. Gilbert had written several comic works that involved pirates or bandits. In Gilbert's 1876 operaPrincess Toto, the title character is eager to be captured by a brigand chief. Gilbert had translatedJacques Offenbach's operettaLes brigands, in 1871.[8] As inLes brigands,The Pirates of Penzance absurdly treats stealing as a professional career path, with apprentices and tools of the trade such as the crowbar andlife preserver.[9]
WhilePinafore was running strongly at theOpera Comique in London, Gilbert was eager to get started on his and Sullivan's next opera, and he began working on the libretto in December 1878.[10] He re-used several elements of his 1870 one-act piece,Our Island Home, which had introduced a pirate "chief", Captain Bang. Bang was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate band as a child by his deaf nursemaid. Also, Bang, like Frederic inThe Pirates of Penzance, had never seen a woman before and felt a keen sense of duty, as an apprenticed pirate, until the passage of his 21st birthday freed him from his articles of indenture.[11][12]Bernard Shaw believed that Gilbert drew on ideas inLes brigands for his new libretto, including the businesslike bandits and the bumbling police.[13] Gilbert and Sullivan also inserted into Act II an idea they first considered for a one-act opera parody in 1876 about burglars meeting police, while their conflict escapes the notice of the oblivious father of a large family of girls.[14] As inPinafore, "there was a wordful self-descriptive set-piece for Stanley ["The Major-General's Song"], introducing himself much as Sir Joseph Porter had done ... a lugubrious comic number for the Sergeant of Police ... a song of confession for Ruth, the successor [to] Little Buttercup", romantic material for Frederic and Mabel, and "ensemble and chorus music in turn pretty, parodic and atmospheric."[15]
Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte met by 24 April 1879 to make plans for a production ofPinafore and the new opera in America.[16] Carte travelled to New York in the summer of 1879 and made arrangements with theatre managerJohn T. Ford[b] to present, at theFifth Avenue Theatre, the authorised productions. He then returned to London.[18] Meanwhile, oncePinafore became a hit in London, the author, composer and producer had the financial resources to produce future shows themselves, and they executed a plan to free themselves from their financial backers in the "Comedy Opera Company". Carte formed a new partnership with Gilbert and Sullivan to divide profits equally among themselves after the expenses of each of their shows.[c] Sullivan wrote to a former producer,John Hollingshead of theGaiety Theatre, saying: "You once settled a precedent for me which may just at present be of great importance to me. I asked you for the band parts of theMerry Wives of Windsor ... and [you] said, 'They are yours, as our run is over....' Now will you please let me have them, and the parts ofThespis also at once. I am detaining the parts ofPinafore, so that the directors shall not take them away from theComique tomorrow, and I base my claim on the precedentyou set." See Rees, p. 89. The Comedy Opera Company directors engaged another theatre to play a rival production ofPinafore, but they had no scenery. On 31 July, they sent a group of thugs to the Opera Comique to seize the scenery and props during the evening performance ofPinafore. See Ainger, p. 170 and Jacobs, pp. 124–125. Stagehands and cast members managed to ward off their backstage attackers and protect the scenery. The police arrived to restore order, and the show continued. See Stedman, pp. 170–171 and Gillan, Don."The Fracas at the Opera Comique"Archived 23 July 2011 at theWayback Machine,The Theatre, 1 September 1879, reprinted at the Stage Beauty website, accessed 6 May 2009. See also "The Fracas at the Opera Comique",The Era, 10 August 1879, p. 5 and "The Fracas at the Opera Comique",The Leeds Mercury, 13 August 1879, p. 8. The matter was eventually settled in court, where a judge ruled in Carte's favour about two years later. See Ainger, p. 175</ref>
In November 1879, Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte sailed to America with a company of singing actors, to play bothPinafore and the new opera, includingJ. H. Ryley as Sir Joseph,Blanche Roosevelt as Josephine,Alice Barnett as Little Buttercup,Furneaux Cook as Dick Deadeye,Hugh Talbot as Ralph Rackstraw andJessie Bond as Cousin Hebe, some of whom had been in thePinafore cast in London.[20] To these, he added some American singers, includingSignor Brocolini as Captain Corcoran.[21]Alfred Cellier came to assist Sullivan, while his brotherFrançois Cellier remained in London to conductPinafore there.[22] Gilbert and Sullivan cast talented actors who were not well-known stars and did not command high fees. They then tailored their operas to the particular abilities of these performers.[23] The skill with which Gilbert and Sullivan used their performers had an effect on the audience: as criticHerman Klein wrote, "we secretly marvelled at the naturalness and ease with which [the Gilbertian quips and absurdities] were said and done. For until then no living soul had seen upon the stage such weird, eccentric, yet intensely human beings .... [They] conjured into existence a hitherto unknown comic world of sheer delight."[24] Gilbert acted as stage director for his own plays and operas. He soughtnaturalism in acting, which was unusual at the time, just as he strove for realistic visual elements. He deprecated self-conscious interaction with the audience and insisted on a style of portrayal in which the characters were never aware of their own absurdity but were coherent internal wholes.[25] Sullivan conducted the music rehearsals.[26]
Sullivan had sketched out the music forPirates in England. When he arrived in New York, however, he found that he had left the sketches for Act I behind, and he had to reconstruct the first act from memory, or compose new numbers.[27][28] Gilbert told a correspondent many years later that Sullivan was unable to recall his setting of the entrance of the women's chorus, so they substituted the chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" from their earlier opera,Thespis.[29] Sullivan's manuscript forPirates contains pages removed from aThespis score, with the vocal parts of this chorus altered from their original arrangement as a four-part chorus. Some scholars (e.g. Tillett and Spencer, 2000) have suggested that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use "Climbing over rocky mountain," and perhaps other parts ofThespis. They argue that Sullivan's having brought the unpublishedThespis score to New York, when there were no plans to reviveThespis, might not have been accidental.[30] In any case, on 10 December 1879, Sullivan wrote a letter to his mother about the new opera, upon which he was hard at work in New York. "I think it will be a great success, for it is exquisitely funny, and the music is strikingly tuneful and catching."[20] As was his usual practice in his operas, Sullivan left theoverture for the last moment, often sketching it out and entrusting completion of "the details" to an assistant, in this case the company's music director, Alfred Cellier.[31]
Pinafore opened in New York on 1 December 1879 and ran for the rest of December. After a reasonably strong first week, audiences quickly fell off, since most New Yorkers had already seen local productions ofPinafore.[32][20] In the meantime, Gilbert and Sullivan raced to complete and rehearseThe Pirates of Penzance.[33] The work's title is a multi-layered joke. On the one hand,Penzance was a docile seaside resort in 1879, and not the place where one would expect to encounter pirates.[d] On the other hand, the title was also a jab at the theatrical "pirates" who had staged unlicensed productions ofH.M.S. Pinafore in America.[35][36] To secure the Britishcopyright,[e] a D'Oyly Carte touring company gave a perfunctorycopyright performance ofPirates the afternoon before the New York premiere, at the Royal Bijou Theatre inPaignton, Devon, organised byHelen Lenoir, who would later marry Richard D'Oyly Carte. The cast, which was performingPinafore in the evenings inTorquay, received some of the music forPirates only two days beforehand. Having had only one rehearsal, they travelled to nearby Paignton for the matinee, where they read their parts from scripts carried onto the stage, making do with whatever costumes they had on hand.[38]
Pirates premiered on 31 December 1879 in New York and was an immediate hit.[20] On 2 January 1880, Sullivan wrote, in another letter to his mother from New York, "The libretto is ingenious, clever, wonderfully funny in parts, and sometimes brilliant in dialogue – beautifully written for music, as is all Gilbert does. ... The music is infinitely superior in every way to thePinafore – 'tunier' and more developed, of a higher class altogether. I think that in time it will be very popular."[39] Shortly thereafter, Carte sent three touring companies around the United States East Coast and Midwest, playingPirates andPinafore.[21][40] Sullivan's prediction was correct. After a strong run in New York and several American tours,Pirates opened in London on 3 April 1880, running for 363 performances there.[41] It remains one of the most popular G&S works.[42][43] The London sets were designed byJohn O'Connor.[44]
The critics' notices were generally excellent in both New York and London.[45][46] The character of Major-General Stanley was widely taken to be a caricature of the popular generalSir Garnet Wolseley. The biographer Michael Ainger, however, doubts that Gilbert intended a caricature of Wolseley, identifying instead General Henry Turner, uncle of Gilbert's wife, as the pattern for the "modern Major-General". Gilbert disliked Turner, who, unlike the progressive Wolseley, was of the old school of officers. Nevertheless, in the original London production,George Grossmith imitated Wolseley's mannerisms and appearance, particularly his large moustache, and the audience recognised the allusion. Wolseley himself, according to his biographer, took no offence at the caricature[47] and sometimes sang "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" for the private amusement of his family and friends.[48]
On the coast ofCornwall, duringQueen Victoria's reign, Frederic celebrates the completion of his twenty-first year and the end of his apprenticeship to a gentlemanly band of pirates ("Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry"). The pirates' maid of all work, Ruth, appears and reveals that, as Frederic's nursemaid long ago, she made a mistake "through being hard of hearing": Mishearing Frederic's father's instructions, she apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship'spilot ("When Frederic was a little lad").
Frederic has never seen any woman other than Ruth, and he believes her to be beautiful. The pirates know better and suggest that Frederic take Ruth with him when he returns to civilisation. Frederic announces that, although it pains him, so strong is his sense of duty that, once free from his apprenticeship, he will be forced to devote himself to the pirates' extermination. He also points out that they are not successful pirates: since they are all orphans, they allow their prey to go free if they too are orphans. Frederic notes that word of this has got about, so captured ships' companies routinely claim to be orphans. Frederic invites the pirates to give up piracy and go with him, so that he need not destroy them, but the Pirate King says that, contrasted with respectability, piracy is comparatively honest ("Oh! better far to live and die"). The pirates depart, leaving Frederic and Ruth. Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls approaching the pirate lair, and realises that Ruth misled him about her appearance ("Oh false one! You have deceived me!"). Sending Ruth away, Frederic hides before the girls arrive.
The girls burst exuberantly upon the secluded spot ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Frederic reveals himself ("Stop, ladies, pray!"), startling them. He appeals to them to help him reform ("Oh! is there not one maiden breast?"). The girls are fascinated by him, but all reject him, except one: Mabel responds to his plea, chiding her sisters for their lack of charity ("Oh sisters deaf to pity's name for shame!"). She offers Frederic her pity ("Poor wand'ring one"), and the two quickly fall in love. The other girls discuss whether to eavesdrop or to leave the new couple alone ("What ought we to do?"), deciding to "talk about the weather," although they steal glances at the affectionate couple ("How beautifully blue the sky").
Frederic warns the young ladies that his old associates will soon return ("Stay, we must not lose our senses"), but before they can flee, the pirates arrive and capture the girls, intending to marry them ("Here's a first rate opportunity"). Mabel warns the pirates that the girls' father is a Major-General ("Hold, monsters!"), who soon arrives and introduces himself ("I am the very model of a modern Major-General"). He appeals to the pirates not to take his daughters, leaving him to face his old age alone. Having heard of the famous Pirates of Penzance, he pretends that he is an orphan to elicit their sympathy ("Oh, men of dark and dismal fate"). The soft-hearted pirates release the girls ("Hail, Poetry!"), making Major-General Stanley and his daughters honorary members of their band ("Pray observe the magnanimity").
The Major-General sits in a ruined chapel on his estate, surrounded by his daughters. His conscience is tortured by the lie that he told the pirates, and the girls attempt to console him ("Oh dry the glist'ning tear"). The Sergeant of Police and his corps arrive to announce their readiness to arrest the pirates ("When the foeman bares his steel"). The girls loudly express their admiration of the police for facing likely slaughter by fierce and merciless foes. The police are unnerved by this and leave reluctantly.
Left alone, Frederic, who is to lead the police, reflects on his opportunity to atone for a life of piracy ("Now for the pirates' lair"), at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. They have realised that Frederic's apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-firstbirthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on 29 February (in aleap year), it means thattechnically only five birthdays have passed ("When you had left our pirate fold"), and he will not reach his twenty-first birthday until he is in his eighties. Frederic is convinced by this logic and agrees to rejoin the pirates. He then sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General's deception. The outraged outlaw declares that the pirates' "revenge will be swift and terrible" ("Away, away, my heart's on fire").
Frederic meets Mabel ("All is prepared"), and she pleads with him to stay ("Stay Frederic, stay"), but he feels bound by his duty to the pirates until his 21st birthday – in 1940. They agree to be faithful to each other until then, though to Mabel "It seems so long" ("Oh, here is love, and here is truth"); Frederic departs. Mabel steels herself ("No, I'll be brave") and tells the police that they must go alone to face the pirates. The police muse that an outlaw might be just like any other man, and it is a shame to deprive him of "that liberty which is so dear to all" ("When a felon's not engaged in his employment"). The police hide on hearing the approach of the pirates ("A rollicking band of pirates we"), who have stolen onto the estate, intending to take revenge for the Major-General's lie ("With cat-like tread").
Just then, Major-General Stanley appears, sleepless with guilt, and the pirates also hide ("Hush, hush! not a word"), while the Major-General listens to the soothing breeze ("Sighing softly to the river"). The girls come looking for him. The pirates leap out to seize them, and the Pirate King urges the captured Major-General to prepare for death. The police rush to their defence but are easily defeated. The Sergeant has one stratagem left: he demands that the pirates yield "inQueen Victoria's name"; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so. Ruth appears and reveals that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong". The Major-General is impressed by this and all is forgiven. Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble ex-pirates after all ("Poor Wand'ring Ones" (reprise)).
Act I
Act II
The notices from critics were generally excellent in both New York and London in 1880.[50] In New York, theHerald and theTribune both dedicated considerable space to their reviews. TheHerald took the view that "the new work is in every respect superior to thePinafore, the text more humorous, the music more elegant and more elaborate."[51] TheTribune called it "a brilliant and complete success", commenting, "The humor of thePirates is richer, but more recondite. It demands a closer attention to the words [but] there are great stores of wit and drollery ... which will well repay exploration. ... The music is fresh, bright, elegant and merry, and much of it belongs to a higher order of art than the most popular of the tunes ofPinafore."[52]The New York Times also praised the work, writing, "it would be impossible for a confirmed misanthrope to refrain from merriment over it", though the paper doubted ifPirates could repeat the prodigious success ofPinafore.[45]
After the London premiere, the critical consensus, led by the theatrical newspaperThe Era, was that the new work marked a distinct advance on Gilbert and Sullivan's earlier works.[46]The Pall Mall Gazette said, "Of Mr. Sullivan's music we must speak in detail on some other occasion. Suffice it for the present to say that in the new style which he has marked out for himself it is the best he has written."[53]The Graphic wrote:
That no composer can meet the requirements of Mr. Gilbert like Mr. Sullivan, andvice versa, is a fact universally admitted. One might fancy that verse and music were of simultaneous growth, so closely and firmly are they interwoven. Away from this consideration, the score ofThe Pirates of Penzance is one upon which Mr. Sullivan must have bestowed earnest consideration, for independently of its constant flow of melody, it is written throughout for voices and instruments with infinite care, and the issue is a cabinet miniature of exquisitely defined proportions. ... Thatthe Pirates is a clear advance upon its precursors, fromTrial by Jury toH.M.S. Pinafore, cannot be denied; it contains more variety, marked character, careful workmanship, and is in fact a more finished artistic achievement … a brilliant success.[54]
There were a few dissenting comments:The Manchester Guardian thought both author and composer had drawn on the works of their predecessors: "Mr. Gilbert ... seems to have borrowed an idea fromSheridan'sThe Critic; Mr. Sullivan's music is sprightly, tuneful and full of 'go', although it is certainly lacking in originality."[55]The Sporting Times noted, "It doesn't appear to have struck any of the critics yet that the central idea inThe Pirates of Penzance is taken fromOur Island Home, which was played by theGerman Reeds some ten years ago."[56]The Times thought Gilbert's wit outran his dramatic invention, and Sullivan's music for the new work was not quite as good as his score forThe Sorcerer, which theTimes critic called a masterpiece.[57]
The overture toThe Pirates of Penzance was composed by Sullivan and his musical assistantAlfred Cellier. It follows the pattern of mostSavoy opera overtures: a lively opening (the melody of "With cat-like tread"), a slow middle section ("Ah, leave me not to pine alone"), and a concludingallegro in a compressedsonata form, in which the themes of "How beautifully blue the sky" and "A paradox, a paradox" are combined.[58]
The score parodies several composers, most conspicuouslyVerdi. "Come, friends, who plough the sea" and "You triumph now" are burlesques ofIl trovatore,[59] and one of the best-known choral passages from the finale to Act I, "Hail Poetry", is, according to the Sullivan scholar,Arthur Jacobs, a burlesque of the prayer scene, "La Vergine degli Angeli", in Verdi'sLa forza del destino.[60] However, another musicologist, Nicholas Temperley, writes, "The choral outburst 'Hail, Poetry' inThe Pirates of Penzance would need very little alteration to turn it into aMozart string quartet."[61] Another well-known parody number from the work is the song forcoloratura, "Poor wand'ring one", which is generally thought to burlesqueGounod's waltz-songs,[62] though the music critic ofThe Times called it "mock-Donizetti".[63] In a scene in Act II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of anAnglican church service.[64]
Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The criticRodney Milnes describes the Major-General's Act II song, "Sighing softly to the river", "as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's heroSchubert",[65] andAmanda Holden speaks of the song's "Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment", but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi'sIl trovatore, with the soloist unaware of a concealed male chorus singing behind him.[66]
Writing aboutpatter songs, Shaw, in his capacity as a music critic, praised "the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart andRossini, chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General inThe Pirates or the Colonel inPatience."[67]
This opera contains two well-known examples of Sullivan's characteristic combination of two seemingly disparate melodies. Jacobs suggests thatBerlioz'sLa damnation de Faust, a great favourite in Sullivan's formative years, may have been the model for Sullivan's trademark contrapuntal mingling of the rapid prattle of the women's chorus in Act I ("How beautifully blue the sky") in 2/4 time with the lovers' duet in waltz time. Jacobs writes that "the whole number [shifts] with Schubertian ease from B to G and back again."[42] In Act II, a double chorus combines the policemen's dogged tune, "When the foeman bares his steel" and the soaring line for the women, "Go, ye heroes, go to glory".[68] In adapting the four-part chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" fromThespis for re-use inPirates, Sullivan took less trouble: he wrote only a single vocal line, suitable for soprano voices.[69] Despite this, the number ends with another example of Sullivan's counterpoint, with the chorus singing the second melody of the piece ("Let us gaily tread the measure") while the orchestra plays the first ("Climbing over rocky mountain").[70]
Sullivan set a particular vocal challenge for the soprano who portrays Mabel. The Sullivan scholarGervase Hughes wrote, "Mabel ...must be a coloratura because of 'Poor wand'ring one!', yet 'Dear father, why leave your bed' demands steady beauty of tone throughout the octave F to F, and 'Ah, leave me not to pine' goes a third lower still."[71] InThe Music of Arthur Sullivan (1959), Hughes quoted four extracts fromPirates, saying that if hearing each out of context one might attribute it to Schubert,Mendelssohn, Gounod orBizet respectively, "yet on learning the truth one would kick oneself for not having recognised Sullivan's touch in all four." Hughes concluded by quoting the introductory bars of "When a felon's not engaged in his employment", adding, "There could never be any doubt as to who wrotethat, and it is as English as our wonderful police themselves."[72]
Because the work was premiered in three different places (the Paignton performance and the full productions in New York and London), there are more variations in the early libretto and score ofThe Pirates of Penzance than in other Gilbert and Sullivan works. Songs sent from New York to the D'Oyly Carte touring company in England for the Paignton premiere were then altered or omitted during Broadway rehearsals. Gilbert and Sullivan trimmed the work for the London premiere, and Gilbert made further alterations up to and including the 1908 Savoy revival. For example, early versions depicted the Pirate King as the servant of the pirate band,[73] and the words of the opening chorus were, "Pour, O King, the pirate sherry".[74] In the original New York production the revelation by Ruth that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong" prompted the following exchange (recalling a famous passage inH.M.S. Pinafore):
| GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS: | What, all noblemen? |
| KING & PIRATES: | Yes,all noblemen! |
| GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS: | What, all? |
| KING: | Well, nearly all! |
| ALL: | . . . They are nearly all noblemen who have gone wrong.
|
In the original London production, this exchange was shortened to the following:
| GIRLS: | Oh spare them! They are all noblemen who have gone wrong. |
| GENERAL: | What, all noblemen? |
| KING: | Yes,all noblemen! |
| GENERAL: | What, all? |
| KING: | Well, nearly all! |
Gilbert deleted the exchange in the 1900 revival, and theChappell vocal score was revised accordingly. For the 1908 revival Gilbert had the pirates yielding "in good King Edward's name".[73] DespiteHelen Carte's repeated urging, Gilbert did not prepare an authorised version of the libretti of theSavoy operas.[75]
In its 1989 production, theD'Oyly Carte Opera Company restored one of the original versions of the finale, which finishes with a variation of "I am the very model of a modern major-general", rather than with the customary reprise of "Poor wand'ring one",[76] but in later revivals, it reverted to the more familiar text.[65]
The Pirates of Penzance has been one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular comic operas. After its unique triple opening in 1879–80, it was revived in London at theSavoy Theatre in 1888 and in 1900, and for the Savoy's repertory season of 1908–09. In the British provinces, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured it almost continuously from 1880 to 1884, and again in 1888. It re-entered the D'Oyly Carte touring repertory in 1893 and was never again absent until the company's closure in 1982.[77] New costumes were designed byPercy Anderson in 1919 andGeorge Sheringham in 1929 (who also executed a new Act I set).Peter Goffin created a new touring set in 1957.[44]
In America, after the New York opening on New Year's Eve, 1879,Richard D'Oyly Carte launched four companies that covered the United States on tours that lasted through the following summer.[78] Gilbert and Sullivan themselves trained each of the touring companies through January and early February 1880, and each company's first performance – whether it was in Philadelphia, Newark, or Buffalo – was conducted by the composer. In Australia, its first authorised performance was on 19 March 1881 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, produced byJ. C. Williamson.[15] There was still no international copyright law in 1880, and the firstunauthorised New York production was given by theBoston Ideal Opera Company at Booth's Theatre in September of that year.[citation needed] The opera premiered in a German translation byRichard Genée andCamillo Walzel (Die Piraten) in Austria at theTheater an der Wien on 1 March 1889, and inDüsseldorf, Germany, on 1 December 1936.[15] The first non-D'Oyly Carte professional production in a country that had been subject to Gilbert's copyright (other than Williamsons' authorised productions) was inStratford, Ontario, Canada, in September 1961, as the copyright expired. In 1979, theTorbay branch of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society presented a centenary tribute to the world premiere performance ofPirates in Paignton, with a production at the Palace Avenue Theatre (situated a few metres from the former Bijou Theatre).[79]
New York has seen over forty major revivals since the premiere.[80] One of these, produced and directed byWinthrop Ames in 1926 at thePlymouth Theatre, ran for 128 performances[81] and gained good notices.[82] A brief 1952 Broadway staging starringMartyn Green, earnedLehman Engel a Tony Award as conductor.[83][84] Repertory companies that have mountedPirates numerous timesOff-Broadway and on tour in the US have included theAmerican Savoyards (1953–67),[85] theLight Opera of Manhattan (1968–89)[86] and theNew York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (1976–present).[87] Professional and amateur productions ofPirates continue with frequency, including at theInternational Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. TheChicago Lyric Opera andEnglish National Opera each also staged the work in 2004.[88] In 2007New York City Opera mounted a new production.[89] In 2013,Scottish Opera produced a British touring production co-produced by the trustees of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.Richard Suart played Major-General Stanley andNicholas Sharratt played Frederic.[90][91]
The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime (excluding tours):
| Theatre | Opening date | Closing date | Perfs. | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bijou Theatre, Paignton | 30 December 1879 | 30 December 1879 | 1 | Englishcopyright performance. |
| Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York | 31 December 1879 | 6 March 1880 | 100 | Original run in New York. The company toured the Eastern seaboard between 8 March and 15 May. Three other touring companies were launched in January and February 1880. |
| 17 May 1880 | 5 June 1880 | |||
| Opera Comique | 3 April 1880 | 2 April 1881 | 363 | Original London run. |
| Savoy Theatre | 23 December 1884 | 14 February 1885 | 37 | Children'sPirates – series of matinées with a juvenile cast.[92] |
| Savoy Theatre | 17 March 1888 | 6 June 1888 | 80 | First professional revival. |
| Savoy Theatre | 30 June 1900 | 5 November 1900 | 127 | Second professional revival. |
| Savoy Theatre | 1 December 1908 | 27 March 1909 | 43 | Second Savoy repertory season; played with five other operas. (Closing date shown is of the entire season.) |
In 1980,Joseph Papp and thePublic Theater of New York City produced a new version ofPirates, directed byWilford Leach and choreographed byGraciela Daniele, at theDelacorte Theatre inCentral Park, as aShakespeare in the Park summer event. Musical direction and arrangements were by William Elliott. The show played for 10 previews and 35 performances. It then transferred to Broadway, opening on 8 January 1981 for a run of 20 previews and 787 regular performances at theUris andMinskoff Theatres, the longest run of any Gilbert and Sullivan production in history.[93] This take onPirates earned enthusiastic reviews[94] and sevenTony Award nominations, winning three, including the award forBest Revival and for Leach as director. It was also nominated for eightDrama Desk Awards, winning five, includingOutstanding Musical and director.[95]
Compared with traditional productions of the opera, Papp'sPirates featured a more swashbuckling Pirate King and Frederic, and a broader, moremusical comedy style of singing and humour. It did not significantly change the libretto, but it used a new orchestration and arrangements that changed keys, added repeats, lengthened dance music and made other minor changes in the score. The "Matter Patter" trio fromRuddigore and "Sorry her lot" fromH.M.S. Pinafore, two other Gilbert and Sullivan operas, were interpolated into the show.[15] The production also restored Gilbert and Sullivan's original New York ending, with a reprise of the Major-General's song in the Act II finale.Linda Ronstadt starred as Mabel,Rex Smith as Frederic,Kevin Kline as the Pirate King,Patricia Routledge as Ruth (replaced byEstelle Parsons for the Broadway transfer),George Rose as the Major-General, andTony Azito as the Sergeant of Police. Kline won a Tony Award for his performance. Smith won aTheatre World Award, and Kline and Azito won Drama Desk Awards. Notable replacements during the Broadway run includedKarla DeVito,Maureen McGovern andPam Dawber as Mabel;Robby Benson,Patrick Cassidy andPeter Noone as Frederic;Treat Williams,Gary Sandy,James Belushi andWally Kurth as the Pirate King;David Garrison as the Sergeant;George S. Irving as the Major-General; andKaye Ballard andMarcia Bagwell as Ruth. The Los Angeles cast of the production featuredBarry Bostwick as the Pirate King,Jo Anne Worley as Ruth,Clive Revill as the Major-General, Dawber as Mabel,Paxton Whitehead as the Sergeant,Caroline Peyton as Edith andAndy Gibb as Frederic.[95]
The production opened at theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 26 May 1982, to generally warm reviews, for a run of 601 performances, earning anOlivier Award nomination as Outstanding Musical and another forTim Curry as the Pirate King. Among the cast wereGeorge Cole andRonald Fraser as the Major-General;Pamela Stephenson as Mabel;Michael Praed and Peter Noone as Frederic; Curry,Timothy Bentinck,Oliver Tobias andPaul Nicholas as the Pirate King;Chris Langham as the Sergeant;Annie Ross as Ruth;Bonnie Langford as Kate; andLouise Gold as Isabel.[96] The Australian production opened in Melbourne in January 1984, opening the newVictorian Arts Centre, directed by John Feraro. It starredJon English as the Pirate King,Simon Gallaher as Frederic,June Bronhill as Ruth,David Atkins as the Sergeant andMarina Prior as Mabel. The six-week limited season was followed by an Australian national tour from 1984 to 1986 and another tour with same cast in the mid-1990s.[93] In 1985, Papp'sPirates opened the newQueensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane.[citation needed] Gallaher'sEssgee Entertainment version ofPirates was inspired by the Papp version.[93] The Papp version also inspired foreign-language productions in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.[15] The Papp production was turned intoa film in 1983, with the original Broadway principal cast reprising their roles, except thatAngela Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth. The minor roles used British actors miming to their Broadway counterparts. The film has been shown occasionally on television. Another film based loosely on the opera and inspired by the success of the Papp version,The Pirate Movie, was released during the Broadway run.[97]
The Papp production design has been widely imitated in later productions ofPirates, even where traditional orchestration and the standard score are used.[93]Ian Bradley wrote:
[Papp's version] has been regularly revived on both sides of the Atlantic – a British revival in 2000 transferred from theWest Yorkshire Playhouse,Leeds, to theOpen Air Theatre in Regents' Park – and has also become well established in the repertoire of amateur student societies. No other production has had as much lasting impact or influence. ... It also helped to promote G&S in places where it has been little performed and bring it to the attention of a much wider and younger audience.[93]
An unlicensed 1982 production mounted in Dublin in advance of Papp's own London production was enjoined from transferring to London by a successful lawsuit.[98] One at the Savoy Theatre in 2004, directed by Steven Dexter and presented by Raymond Gubbay, used a new musical arrangement, to avoid Papp's copyright.[99][100] Some modern productions combine design elements borrowed from the Disney film franchisePirates of the Caribbean with aspects of the Papp production. From 2006 to 2007 anOpera Australia production toured Australia starringAnthony Warlow as the Pirate King.[101][102] Not all of the Papp-inspired revivals have generated the same enthusiasm as Papp's 1980s productions: a 1999 UK touring production received this critique: "No doubt when Papp first staged this show in New York and London it had some quality of cheek orchutzpah or pizzazz or irony or something that accounted for its success. But all that's left now ... is a crass Broadway-style musical arrangement ... and the worst kind of smutty send-up of a historic piece of art."[103]
ARoundabout Theatre Company production titledPirates! The Penzance Musical began previews on Broadway at theTodd Haimes Theatre on 4 April 2025 and opened on 24 April; it is expected to run through 27 July 2025.[104] The adaptation starsDavid Hyde Pierce as Gilbert/Major General Stanley;Ramin Karimloo as the Pirate King,Jinkx Monsoon as Ruth,Nicholas Barasch as Frederic, Samantha Williams as Mabel and Preston Truman Boyd as Sullivan/Sergeant of Police.Scott Ellis directs, with choreography byWarren Carlyle. Designs are byDavid Rockwell (sets), Linda Cho (costumes),Donald Holder (lighting) and Mikaal Sulaiman (sound).[105] A concert of this concept was staged in October 2022 by, and for the benefit of, Roundabout, at the same theatre, starring Pierce and Karimloo, withColton Ryan as Frederic.[106]
Rupert Holmes adapted the libretto with aNew Orleans setting. New musical theatre orchestrations, with styles includingFrench Quarter jazz,blues,Dixieland,boogie-woogie,soft-shoe,calypso,ragtime andrumba, are by Joseph Joubert andDaryl Waters.[105][107] Major cuts in the score include the overture, "Oh! false one, you have deceiv'd me", "How beautifully blue the sky", "What ought we to do?", "Now for the pirates' lair!", "No, I'll be brave" and "Sighing softly to the river". Additions include passages from "Good Morrow, Good Mother" (fromIolanthe, mashed up with "Pour Oh Pour") and "The Sail the Ocean Blues" in act 1 (adapted fromH.M.S. Pinafore), a jazz Entr'acte, "The Nightmare Song" (adapted fromIolanthe), "Alone and Yet Alive" (adapted fromThe Mikado) and "We're All from Someplace Else" (adapted fromPinafore) in act 2. Many lyrics are rewritten, and some of the women's music from act 1 is rearranged to create the new number "We're Sashayin' Through the Old French Quarter"; extra dance music is added, and the act 2 finale is largely rewritten. The roles of Samuel, Edith, Kate and Isabel are eliminated, though some dialogue lines are assigned to ensemble members. Samuel's music is divided between Frederic and the Pirate King, while some of Edith's music is assigned to Mabel. A brief prologue is added in which Gilbert and Sullivan introduce the show and explain that, during their tour of America they have so loved New Orleans that they have re-set the show in that city to appeal to the audience at theTheatre of the Renaissance, and the show then supposedly unfolds at that venue. The story hews closely to the original plot, but the denouement is changed from the revelation that the pirates are aristocrats to a realization that America is a diverse nation of immigrants.
Most reviews of the production were positive.[108] The critic forVariety wrote that "it is easy enough to put aside almost all quibbles [with the] adaptation ... because the production is so joyous and well-executed".[109] A review inamNewYork observed that most "Broadway musicals [this spring] have been more fizzle than fireworks, andPirates! is the rollicking exception. It’s fresh, fearless, and full of flair."[110]Pirates! has been has been nominated for the 2025Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical[111] and three 2025Drama League Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical.[112] It was featured onCBS Sunday Morning.[113]
The following tables show the casts of the principal original productions and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring repertory at various times through to the company's 1982 closure, thePapp's Pirates Broadway and West End casts and the 2025 Broadway cast.
The Pirates of Penzance has been recorded many times, and the critical consensus is that it has fared well on record.[133] The first complete recording of the score was in 1921, under the direction ofRupert D'Oyly Carte, but with established recording singers rather than D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performers.[134] In 1929,The Gramophone said of a new set with a mainly D'Oyly Carte cast, "This new recording represents the high-water mark so far as Gilbert and Sullivan opera is concerned. In each of the previous Savoy albums there have been occasional lapses which prevented one from awarding them unqualified praise; but with thePirates it is happily otherwise; from first to last, and in every bar, a simply delightful production."[135] Of later recordings by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the 1968 recording (with complete dialogue) is highly regarded: The onlineGilbert and Sullivan Discography says, "This recording is one of the best D'Oyly Carte sets of all time, and certainly the bestPirates",[136] and thePenguin Guide to Opera on Compact Disc also recommends it.[137] So too does thePenguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, alongside the 1993Mackerras recording.[138] The opera criticAlan Blyth recommended the D'Oyly Carte recording of 1990: "a performance full of the kind of life that can only come from the experience of stage performances".[139] The onlineDiscography site also mentions the 1981 Papp recording as "excellent", despite its inauthentic 1980 re-orchestrations that "changed some of the timbres so as to appeal to a rock-oriented public".[140]
Of the available commercial videos, theDiscography site considers the Brent Walker better than the Papp version.[141] More recent professional productions have been recorded on video by theInternational Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.[142]
Selected recordings
Pirates is one of the most frequently referenced works of Gilbert and Sullivan. TheMajor-General's Song, in particular, is frequently parodied,pastiched and used in advertising.[152] Parody versions have been used in political commentary as well as entertainment media.[153] Its challengingpatter has proved interesting to comedians; notable examples includeTom Lehrer's song "The Elements" andDavid Hyde Pierce's monologue as host ofSaturday Night Live.[154] In 2010, comedianRon Butler released a YouTube pastiche of the song in character asPresident Obama which, as of September 2021, had garnered more than 1.9 million views.[155][156]
Pastiche examples include theAnimaniacs version, "I am the very model of a cartoon individual", in the episode "H.M.S. Yakko";[157] theDoctor Who audio "I am the very model of aGallifreyan buccaneer" inDoctor Who and the Pirates;[158] theStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip version in the episode "The Cold Open" (2006), where the cast performs "We'll be the very model of a modern network TV show";[159] and theMass Effect 2 video game version, where the characterMordin Solus sings: "I am the very model of a scientist Salarian".[160]
The song is often used in film and on television, unchanged in many instances, as a character's audition piece, or seen in a "school play" scene. Examples include aVeggieTales episode entitled "The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!"; theFrasier episode "Fathers and Sons";The Simpsons episode "Deep Space Homer"; and theMad About You episode "Moody Blues", where Paul directs a charity production ofPenzance starring his father, Burt, as the Major-General. InThe Muppet Show (season 3, episode 4) guest host, comedianGilda Radner, sings the song with a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) talking carrot (Parodying the pilot/pirate confusion inPirates, Radner had requested a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) talkingparrot, but was misheard).[161] In an episode ofHome Improvement, Al Borland begins to sing the song when tricked into thinking he is in a soundproof booth. In theBabylon 5 episode "Atonement",Marcus Cole uses the song to driveDr Stephen Franklin crazy on a long journey to Mars.
Examples of the use of the song in advertising includeMartyn Green's pastiche of the song listing all of the varieties ofCampbell's Soup[162] and a 2011Geico commercial in which a couple that wants to save money, but still listen to musicals, finds a roommate, dressed as the Major-General, who awkwardly begins the song while dancing on a coffee table.[163]Gimbels department store had a campaign sung to the tune of the Major-General's Song that began, "We are the very model of a modern big department store."[164] George Washington, in the number "Right Hand Man" from the 2015 musicalHamilton byLin-Manuel Miranda, refers to himself with irony as "The model of a modern major general", which he rhymes with "men are all". Miranda commented: "I always felt like 'mineral' wasn't the best possible rhyme."[165]
Other film references toPirates includeKate & Leopold, where there are multiple references, including a scene where Leopold sings "I Am The Very Model of A Modern Major-General" while accompanying himself on the piano; and inPretty Woman, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) covers a social gaffe by prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), who comments that the operaLa traviata was so good that she almost "peed [her] pants", by saying that she had said that she liked it better thanThe Pirates of Penzance". InWalt Disney's cartoonMickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), there is a performance ofPirates that becomes the setting for the climactic battle between the Musketeers andCaptain Pete.Pirates songs sung in the cartoon are "With cat-like tread", "Poor wand'ring one", "Climbing over rocky mountain" and the Major-General's song. "Poor wand'ring one" was used in the movieAn American Tail.[166] The soundtrack of the 1992 filmThe Hand That Rocks the Cradle includes "Poor Wand'ring One" and "Oh Dry the Glistening Tear".[167] A nonsense pastiche of the Major-General's song in the 2017 filmDespicable Me 3, sung byMinions, was termed "amusing"[168] and "the film's finest moment";[169] it was uploaded to YouTube byIllumination Entertainment as a singalong challenge, which has garnered more than 19 million views as of 2023.[170]
Television references, in addition to those mentioned above, included the seriesThe West Wing, wherePirates and other Gilbert and Sullivan operas are mentioned in several episodes, especially by Deputy Communications Director,Sam Seaborn, who was recording secretary of his school's Gilbert and Sullivan society. InStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a poster fromPirates hangs onMatt Albie's office wall. Both TV series were created byAaron Sorkin. In the pilot episode of the 2008CTV seriesFlashpoint, a police officer and his partner sing the policeman's song. In anAssy McGee episode entitled "Pegfinger", Detective Sanchez's wife is a member of a community theatre that performs the opera. In a 1986 episode of the animated television adaptation ofThe Wind in the Willows entitledA Producer's Lot, several characters put on a production ofPirates.[171] In a 2005Family Guy episode "Peter's Got Woods",Brian Griffin sings "Sighing Softly", withPeter Griffin's assistance. In a 2012 episode, "Killer Queen", Peter gives a garbled rendition of theMajor-General's Song.[172] In the 2009Criminal Minds episode "The Slave of Duty",Hotch quotes "Oh dry the glist'ning tear".[173] In the 1992 episode "The Understudy" ofClarissa Explains it All, the title character is chosen to understudy Mabel in a school production ofPirates and is unprepared when she must go on; a scene fromThe Mikado is also heard.[174]
Other notable instances of references toPirates include aNew York Times article on 29 February 1940, memorialising that Frederic was finally out of hisindentures.[175] Six years previously, the arms granted to themunicipal borough of Penzance in 1934 contain a pirate dressed in Gilbert's original costuming, and Penzance had a rugby team called the Penzance Pirates, which is now called theCornish Pirates. In 1980,Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called "The Gilbert & Sullivan Mystery" (later retitled "The Year of the Action"), concerning whether the action ofPirates took place on 1 March 1873, or 1 March 1877 (depending on whether Gilbert took into account the fact that 1900 was not a leap year).[176] The plot ofLaurie R. King's 2011 novelPirate King centers on a 1924 silent movie adaptation ofThe Pirates of Penzance.[177]
The music from the chorus of "With cat-like tread", which begins "Come, friends, who plough the sea," was used in the popular American song, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here." "With cat-like tread" is also part of the soundtrack, along with other Gilbert and Sullivan songs, in the 1981 film,Chariots of Fire, and it was pastiched in the "HMS Yakko" episode ofAnimaniacs in a song about surfing a whale.[178] In the casePierson v. Ray, which established the doctrine ofqualified immunity for police officers, theUnited States Supreme Court held that "[a] policeman's lot is not so unhappy that he must choose between being charged with dereliction of duty if he does not arrest when he had probable cause, and being punished with damages if he does."[179] State courts have cited the same song for other purposes: "Where does this extraordinary situation leave the lower... Courts and State Courts in their required effort to apply the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States...? Like the policeman in Gilbert and Sullivan'sThe Pirates of Penzance, their 'lot is not a happy one.'"[180]
General
The Pirates of Penzance public domain audiobook atLibriVoxLists of productions
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