The Pirates of Penzance

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The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas. The official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York on December 31, 1879. (To secure British copyright, there had been a perfunctory performance the preceding evening at the Royal Bijou Theatre Paignton, Devon. The cast, having performed Pinafore the night before, read from scripts carried onto the stage and made do with whatever costumes they had on hand.) The London premiere, and the first full performance in the UK, was on April 3, 1880, at the Opera Comique. As with Gilbert and Sullivan's previous opera, the work's title was enough to provoke laughter, as Penzance was so comparatively docile at the time that the very idea of criminal activity – let alone pirates – in that vicinity was ridiculous.

Pirates was the only G&S opera to have its official premiere in New York. At the time, American law offered no copyright protection to foreigners. After their previous opera, H.M.S. Pinafore, was a hit in London, American companies quickly mounted "pirated" productions, often taking considerable liberties with the text, and paying no royalties to the creators. By mounting their next opera in New York, Gilbert and Sullivan hoped to forestall further "piracy," by establishing the official production in America before others could copy it.

Contents

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Roles

  • Chorus of Pirates, Police and General Stanley's Daughters
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Synopsis

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Act I

Frederic, a young man with a strong sense of duty, is seen celebrating his twenty-first birthday in the company of a group of pirates ("Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry"). His nurse Ruth appears and reveals that she had apprenticed Frederic to the pirate band by mistake, many years ago ("When Frederic was a little lad"), she misheard Frederic's father, who wanted the little lad to become a brave pilot. Because Frederic has never seen any women other than Ruth, he believes her to be beautiful, and agrees to marry her later that day. Although Frederic is sympathetic to his pirate friends (they being all orphans whose gentle natures make their piratical careers difficult) his sense of duty nonetheless compels him to leave the band upon the completion of his apprenticeship, then destroy them. He invites the Pirate King to give up piracy and go with him, but is refused ("Oh! better far to live and die"). Upon leaving the pirates, Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls on the shore, and realises that Ruth lied to him about her features ("Oh false one! You have deceived me!"). He hides before the girls arrive. The girls enter the stage singing ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Frederic reveals himself ("Stop, ladies, pray!") and appeals to them for affection ("Oh! is there not one maiden breast") to help him reform; one of them, Mabel, responds to his plea ("Poor wand'ring one"). The other girls contemplate whether to eavesdrop, or leave the new couple alone ("What ought we to do?"), and eventually decide to sing about the weather ("How beautifully blue the sky"). Frederic warns the girls of the pirates nearby ("Stay, we must not lose our senses"), but they are interrupted by the arrival of said pirates, who wish to capture all the girls for wives ("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"). The pirates attempt to kill him and take his daughters, but he appeals to them for clemency on the grounds that he's an orphan ("Oh, men of dark and dismal fate"). The soft-hearted pirates are sympathetic, and release the girls.

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Act II

The Major-General sits in his family mausoleum, surrounded by his daughters. He laments his tortured conscience at the lie he told the Pirate King, while they attempt to console him ("Oh dry the glist'ning tear"). The Police Sergeant and his policemen enter to announce their readiness to go forth and arrest the pirates ("When the foeman bares his steel"). Frederic, who is to lead the group, pauses for a moment's reflection ("Now for the pirate's lair"), at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. They inform him that his apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on the extra day of Leap Year (February 29), that means that technically only five birthdays have passed ("When you had left our pirate fold"). Frederic is convinced that he must rejoin the pirates by this logic, and thus he sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General's lie ("Away, away, my heart's on fire").

He meets Mabel ("All is prepared") and she bids him to stay ("Stay Frederic, stay"), but he dutifully returns to fulfil his apprenticeship with the pirates. Mabel consoles herself ("No, I am brave"), The police and their Sergeant are told they must go alone ("When the foeman bares his steel" (reprise)"), and they lament their fate ("When a felon's not engaged in his employment"). They hide on hearing the approach of the pirates ("A rollicking band of pirates we"), who have stolen onto the grounds, meaning to avenge themselves for the Major-General's lie ("With cat-like tread"). The police and the pirates prepare for the fight ("Hush, hush! not a word"). The Major-General himself appears, sleepless with guilt ("Sighing softly to the river"), and his daughters follow him. The pirates, of course, leap to the attack, and the police to the defense; but the police are easily defeated. The Sergeant plays his trump card, demanding that the pirates yield "in Queen Victoria's name"; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so. Ruth appears and reveals that the orphan pirates are in fact noblemen; all is forgiven, Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble pirates after all.

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Musical numbers

  • Overture (includes "With cat-like tread", "Ah, leave me not to pine", "Pray observe the magnanimity", "When you had left our pirate fold", "Climbing over rocky mountain", and "How beautifully blue the sky")
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Act I

  • 1. "Pour, oh pour, the pirate sherry" (Samuel and Chorus of Pirates)
  • 2. "When Fred'ric was a little lad" (Ruth)
  • 3. "Oh, better far to live and die" (Pirate King and Chorus of Pirates)
  • 4. "Oh! false one, you have deceiv'd me" (Frederic and Ruth)
  • 5. "Climbing over rocky mountain" (Chorus of Girls) 1
  • 6. "Stop, ladies, pray" (Edith, Kate, Frederic, and Chorus of Girls)
  • 7. "Oh, is there not one maiden breast" (Frederic and Chorus of Girls)
  • 8. "Poor wand'ring one" (Mabel and Chorus of Girls)
  • 9. "What ought we to do?" (Edith, Kate, and Chorus of Girls)
  • 10. "How beautifully blue the sky" (Mabel, Frederic, and Chorus of Girls)
  • 11. "Stay, we must not lose our senses" (Frederic and Chorus of Girls and Pirates)
  • 12. "Hold, monsters" (Mabel, Major-General, Samuel, and Chorus)
  • 13. "I am the very model of a modern Major-General" (Major-General and Chorus)
  • 14. "Oh, men of dark and dismal fate" (Mabel, Kate, Edith, Ruth, Frederic, Samuel, King, Major-General, and Chorus)

1 This song originated in Gilbert and Sullivan's first collaboration, Thespis.

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Act II

  • 15. "Oh, dry the glist'ning tear" (Mabel and Chorus of Girls)
  • 16. "Then, Frederic, let your escort lion-hearted" (Frederic and Major-General)
  • 17. "When the foeman bares his steel" (Mabel, Edith, Sergeant, and Chorus of Policemen and Girls)
  • 18. "Now for the pirates' lair!" (Frederic, Ruth, and King)
  • 19. "When you had left our pirate fold" (Ruth, Frederic, and King)
  • 20. "Away, away! My heart's on fire!" (Ruth, Frederic, and King)
  • 21. "All is prepar'd; your gallant crew await you" (Mabel and Frederic)
  • 22. "Stay, Fred'ric, stay" (Mabel and Frederic)
  • 23. "No, I'll be brave" (Mabel, Sergeant, and Chorus of Police)
  • 24. "When the felon's not engaged in his employment" (Sergeant and Chorus of Police)
  • 25. "A rollicking band of pirates we" (Sergeant and Chorus of Pirates and Police)
  • 26. "With cat-like tread" (Samuel and Chorus of Pirates and Police)
  • 27. "Hush, hush, not a word!" (Frederic, King, Major-General, and Chorus of Police and Pirates)
  • 28. Finale: "Sighing softly to the river" (Ensemble)
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Pop adaptations

At least three of the songs have been used in whole or in part in other contexts:

  • The Major-General's Song has been used for other fast-singing lyrics, such as Tom Lehrer's song, The Elements (song).
  • The chorus for Oh! better far to live and die begins "For I am a Pirate King (hoorah for the Pirate King)", which was adapted some decades later (with only one note varying) as the start of the "Popeye" cartoon theme song.
  • The tune for the chorus for With cat-like tread, which begins "Come, friends, who plough the sea..." is also known as the tune for "Hail, hail, the gang's all here..."
  • With cat-like tread and Modern Major General were both parodied in an episode of Animaniacs. The former was changed to a song about surfing a whale, and the latter became a song by Yakko Warner about his comedic talents.
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See also

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External links

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