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Cast
- Major General Stanley Bar
- Pirate King B
- Samuel (narrator) Bar
- Frederic T
- Sergeant of Police B
- Mabel S
- Edith MS
- Kate MS
- Ruth C
- Isobel N/S
- 6M/5W principals.
- Previous casts: 1954:21M/21W
1966:22M/23W.
1975:23M/30W.
1982:22M/29W.
1988:23M/48W (6 women were Pirates).
1995:26M/46W.
1995:41W/27M
2002:41W/35M
- Choruses: Act 1: 1M/3M/5W/6/7/8/9/10W/11W/12/13/14F.
Act 2: 1W/3/9M/10M/11M/12M/13M/14F
- Two sets, one costume, apart from the police, who come from some of
the Act one pirates.
The story of the opera
The curtain rises on part of the rocky coast of Cornwall (the dry part
of course) where the Pirates with their King are celebrating the fact
that Frederic, one of their number, has completed his apprenticeship
to their trade, as he is now twenty-one years of age. However,
Frederic surprises them all by announcing to the King that, although
he did his best for them as an apprentice, now that he is free he
proposes to leave them. His presence there with them anyway was all
due to an error on the part of Ruth, the Pirate maid-of-all-work. She
apparently misheard Frederic's father, who wished him to become
apprenticed to a pilot. Obviously before the days of the National
Health.
The King comments that piracy does not seem to pay very well, so
Frederic, still under a sense of duty, points out to them that they
are far too soft hearted, and that because they are all orphans, they
will never molest any other orphan. Consequently the word has got
round, and every ship they take claim to be manned entirely by
orphans...
Now, Ruth is the only woman Frederic has seen since he went to sea at
the age of eight, and so he has never had the chance of comparing her
with any other, and, despite Samuel's "there are the remains of a fine
woman about Ruth", neither Frederic or the Pirates really want her on
their hands, or anywhere else for that matter. Faced with the prospect
of having to exterminate the Pirates out of a sense of duty after
midnight, Frederic suggests that the King come back to civilisation
with him, but the King will have none of it "I'll live and die a
Pirate King". Ruth pleads with Frederic to take her with him, but her
case is lost when he sees a bevy of beautiful young women in the
distance. Ruth departs in despair and Frederic hides to watch the
girls who take off their shoes and socks to have a paddle. As a
Victorian, page three did not exist, and the thought of these young
ladies' bare feet was quite enough. These girls are all the daughters
of Major General Stanley, and as you will see by the quantity of them
he must have had a bicycle in his youth.
As the girls go to have their paddle. Frederic appears and frightens
them somewhat by his 'effective but alarming costume', and by the news
that he is a Pirate, although he assures them that he renounces his
profession that very evening. He appeals to them, but there is no
response until Mabel enters and sings the well known 'Poor Wandering
One'. During this song it becomes clear that Mabel and Frederic have
something going for them, so during the next song, whilst Frederic and
Mabel go aside, the rest of the girls chatter about the weather - but
still try to hear what the two lovers are saying. This is all very
idyllic, but it does not last long.
Now Frederic, as he goes off with Mabel, tries to warn the other girls
that the Pirates are coming back. The girls take the hint but too
late! The Pirates have stealthily crept in and each one grabs a girl -
their intention to marry them, I think..... This is all checked when
Mabel points out that their father is a Major General. Cue for the
patter song where the Major General explains who he is. The Pirates
are determined to hold on to their captures but with a sudden
inspiration the Major General asks 'Do you know what it is to be an
orphan?' he turns the Pirates round. You will notice that even the
Major General has heard of the famous Pirates. The first act ends with
the Major General waving his Union jack, and the Pirates waving the
skull and crossbones.
Act two commences in a ruined chapel in the grounds of Major General
Stanley's property. The Major General sits pensively surrounded by his
daughters. He is upset that he has deceived the Pirates by falsely
describing himself to be an orphan, and has brought down shame upon
his ancestors. Frederic (who is now a goody) points out that as he
only bought the property some twelve months previously, they are not
even his ancestors. With impeccable logic, the Major General informs
Frederic that 'I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know
whose ancestors they are.
The time for the attack on the Pirates is nigh, and he calls upon
Frederic to summon the Police who march in and, with their Sergeant,
sing 'When the foeman bares his steel'. After this and a lot of
'tarantaras' (singing 'tarantara' gives the Police courage) they
eventually go leaving Frederic by himself - but not for long. Enter
the Pirate King and Ruth who threaten Frederic: There is a new twist
to the story: The King has discovered that Frederic's indentures are
until his twenty first birthday, and as Frederic was born in leap year
on the twenty-ninth of February - he would have been thirty-three last
Monday, had he survived one hundred and thirty-two years - he has only
had five birthdays so far, and so is still an apprentice Pirate.
Frederic's loyalties now have to return to the Pirates and so he then
informs them that Major General Stanley was telling a lie when he said
he was an orphan. This annoys the King who states 'He is doomed', and
sets off with Ruth to collect the rest of the Pirates and go to attack
Major General Stanley, leaving Frederic to explain this to Mabel, and
she swears to be true to him, and wait until he comes of age - in
nineteen forty, (when he will presumably be eighty four years old, and
probably not a lot of use to her).
Frederic rushes away to rejoin the Pirates as the Police arrive. Mabel
tells the Sergeant that as Frederic, out of his sense of duty, has
rejoined his old associates, the Police will have to attack the
Pirates without him. In the famous song (which put a quotation into
our language) that follows, the Sergeant gives the reasons for the
lack of enthusiasm for the job. After the song, the Police hear the
approaching Pirates and so decide to hide (saying 'Tarantara' to give
themselves confidence),and the Pirates come on to sing 'With cat-like
tread' at the tops of their voices. They too go to hide - still not
seeing the Police - as the Major General enters to sing his soliloquy.
The girls hear this and come on in their night-dresses and carrying
lighted candles For the more salacious among you, please bear in mind
that this is not 1988, page 3 etc., but 1877 (work it out for
yourselves).
A lot now happens quickly: The Pirates rush out of hiding and seize
the General. The Police give battle, but are quickly defeated, the
Pirates standing over them with drawn swords. Then the Sergeant plays
his trump card 'We charge you yield in Queen Victoria's name'. This is
too much for the Pirates 'We yield at once with humbled mien' declares
the King, 'Because with all our faults we love our Queen'. The Police,
in tears as this is so moving, prepare to lead the Pirates away, but
are stopped by Ruth who, very conveniently, says 'They are no members
of the common throng, they are all noblemen who have gone wrong' The
General replies that we all love our House of Peers, and so he
cheerfully hands over his daughters to the Pirates, and to the strains
of 'Poor Wandering One' all ends happily ever after.
You will notice in the finale of Act Two, after the Pirates 'Yield in
Queen Victoria's name' that there is a quartet 'To Queen Victoria's
name we bow' and a quotation from HMS Pinafore. Although this is not
in the current scores of the opera, it does appear in Sullivan's
original manuscript, which is now in the Pierpont Morgan library in
New York. Mike Harris, our president, has obtained a microfilm copy of
this and has included it in our production. He also arranged the
joining of the overture to the opening of Act one, and rearranged
'With cat-like tread'.
This was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have had a virtually
simultaneous UK/USA première, at the end of December 1879. The reason
behind this was that any American production earned no money for the
composers, since the British copyright laws did not apply there. HMS
Pinafore was all the rage then, and there were playing at the time
some 40 different productions, all pirated, and none paying the
composers anything in the way of copyright fees. There only recourse
was to have the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company themselves perform the
first American performance of the next opera themselves. The UK
performance, on the 30th, was solely to establish copyright, and was
of all places at the Royal Bijou theatre in Paignton, Devon, with the
cast wearing odd HMS Pinafore based costumes (since they were then
playing that at the time), and some even holding their scripts, as
they had had very little time to learn it. The two composers were in
New York supervising the American première, and were sending over the
songs as they were written. The Royal Bijou theatre, alas, is no more
and the Gerston hotel was built on its site. All that now remains is
the 'grand staircase' which is in the hotel . The first London
performance, at the Opera Comique, was on the 3rd April 1880. As this
opera did not have its first London performance at the Savoy theatre,
which became the home of D'Oyly Carte, it cannot strictly be called a
'Savoy' opera.
It is ironic that the new 'New York' production of 'Pirates' by Joseph
Papp is playing to packed houses still, as it did when it was on in
London, and when it came to our Manchester Opera House some three or
four years ago. Anybody who has seen this production will agree that
although it is a modern show, Gilbert's lyrics have not been altered,
and despite a complete rearrangement of the instruments in the
orchestra, Sullivan's harmonies remain intact. I feel that Sir Arthur
and Sir William would have approved. Since the G&S shows were written,
hundreds of other productions have come and disappeared without trace.
There is a lot of life left in Gilbert and Sullivan yet.
MAH 1988.
Notes to the 1995 production:
The Pirates of Penzance was the fifth opera written by Gilbert and
Sullivan, the others being Thespis (1871), Trial by Jury (1875), The
Sorcerer (1877) and 'HMS Pinafore' (1878), and was followed in quick
succession by 'Patience' in 1881 and 'Iolanthe' in 1882.
This was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have had a virtually
simultaneous UK/USA première, at the end of December 1879. The reason
behind this was that any American production earned no money for the
composers, since the British copyright laws did not apply there. HMS
Pinafore was all the rage there, (as indeed it was in England) and
there were playing at the time some 40 different productions, all
pirated, and none paying the composers anything in the way of
copyright fees. The only recourse the composers had was to have the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company themselves perform the first American
performance of the next opera themselves. The UK performance, on the
30th, was solely to establish copyright, and was of all places at the
Royal Bijou theatre in Paignton, Devon, with the cast wearing odd HMS
Pinafore based costumes (since they were then playing that at the
time), and some even holding their scripts, as they had had very
little time to learn it. The two composers were in New York
supervising the American première, and were sending over the songs as
they were written. The Royal Bijou theatre, alas, is no more and the
Gerston hotel was built on its site. All that now remains is the
'grand staircase' which is in the hotel . The first London
performance, at the Opera Comique, was on the 3rd April 1880. As this
opera did not have its first London performance at the Savoy theatre,
which was built and opened (by Richard D'Oyly Carte) during the run of
'Iolanthe' in 1882, it cannot strictly be called a 'Savoy' opera.
Gilbert used his play 'Our Island Home' - written in 1871 - as the
basis for Pirates. He was often to be found recycling his old plots in
this way. Sullivan was suffering from the kidney ailment that
eventually killed him. On their way across the Atlantic, Sullivan
realised that although he had all of Act Two with him, he had left the
sketches for Act One in England. He would have telegraphed for them
but had not the time. He managed to recall most of the numbers except
the entry of the girls' chorus 'Climbing over Rocky Mountains', and as
this situation was virtually the same as the entrance of a troupe of
Thespians in 'Thespis', the whole number was transferred to Pirates,
where it remains to this day. Sullivan seemed to work best when under
pressure (which would not do his kidney complaint any good) and the
fortnight before the American première was to work until 4 or 5 in the
morning, and be at the theatre (or Theater, I suppose) for
mid-morning.
Parts of the music were telegraphed back to England as and when they
were finished. Due to its unusual start, Pirates has had several
altered endings: If you look at some early vocal scores you can see
them. The one we are doing has the chorus 'To Queen Victoria's name we
bow' in the Finale of Act Two, as it does appear in the original
manuscript, and nowhere else, although only as a sketch.
It seems to be a popular opera still with the Americans, and the 'New
York' production of 'Pirates' by Joseph Papp played to packed houses,
as it did when it was on in London, and the regions. It is now
available for amateur production, but at a cost for there are
royalties to be paid if you do this version. A film was also made with
Kevin Cline and Linda Rondstadt as Frederic and Mabel which is most
enjoyable. Unfortunately this is not available on video and has been
seen (twice) on Channel 4 where it is arbitrarily punctuated with
commercials. However, anybody who has seen this or the stage
production will agree that although it is a modern show, Gilbert's
lyrics have not been altered, and despite a complete rearrangement of
the instruments in the orchestra, Sullivan's harmonies remain intact.
I feel that Sir Arthur and Sir William would have approved. Our
Society has been going now for over 40 years (it was started in 1951)
and I have every confidence that it (although not necessarily we) will
still be here in another 40. Enjoy.
MAH Feb 1995.
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