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Background The Pirates of Penzance was the only Gilbert and Sullivan 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 unauthorized "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. The creative period was unusual, in that Sullivan composed the acts in reverse — bringing the completed Act II with him, with Act I existing only in sketches. When he arrived in New York, he found that he had left the sketches behind, and he had to reconstruct the first act from memory. 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. Sullivan's manuscript for Pirates contains pages removed from a Thespis score, with the vocal parts altered from their original context as a four-part chorus. Some scholars (e.g., Tillett and Spencer, 2000) have offered evidence that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use "Climbing over rocky mountain," and perhaps other parts of Thespis, noting that the presence of a Thespis score in New York when there were no plans to revive it might not have been accidental. In any event, "Climbing over rocky mountain," one other song, and a ballet are the only portions of the score of Thespis known to have survived. On December 10 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." True enough, The Pirates of Penzance was an immediate hit in New York, and later London, and takes its place today as one of the most popular G&S works. There was one other premiere of note. To secure British copyright, there was a perfunctory performance the evening before the New York premiere, at the Royal Bijou Theatre Paignton, Devon. The cast, having performed Pinafore the night before, read from scripts carried onto the stage, making do with whatever costumes they had on hand. The work's title is a multi-layered joke. On the one hand, Penzance was a docile seaside resort at the time, and not the place where one would expect to encounter pirates. On the other hand, the title was also a jab at the theatrical pirates who had staged unlicensed productions of H.M.S. Pinafore in America. Sullivan's score borrowed from several musical traditions. In the Major-General's Act II song, "Sighing softly to the river", the composer imitates Schubert’s partsongs for male voices. Elsewhere, "Come, friends, who plough the sea" resembles the anvil chorus from Il Trovatore. In another scene in Act II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response, in an imitation of the form of an Anglican church service's canticle and response. One of the most famous passages from the finale to Act 1, referred to as "Hail Poetry", is a five-part musical piece, utilising all of the voices in a chorale style. Roles 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 ship's 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. Act II The Major-General sits by the mausoleum on his estate, 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"), and he will not reach his twenty-first birthday until 1940, when he will be in his eighties. 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. Musical numbers Act I Act II Versions In the original productions, the revelation by Ruth that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong" prompted the following exchange (recalling a famous passage in H.M.S. Pinafore): 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 this exchange in the 1900 revival, and the Chappell vocal score was revised accordingly. The new D'Oyly Carte Opera Company restored the original version in their 1989 production. Production history From the beginning, 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 in 1888, in 1900, and for the Savoy repertory season of 1908–09. In the British provinces, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured it almost continuously from 1880–1884, and again in 1888. It re-entered the touring repertory in 1893, and was never again absent through to the company's closure in 1982. 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. 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. There was still no international copyright law, and the first unauthorised New York production was given by the Boston Ideal Opera Company at Booth's Theatre in September 1880. The first non-D'Oyly Carte professional production in a country that was subject to Gilbert's copyright was in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, in September 1961. The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime: Historical casting 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: Joseph Papps Pirates In 1980, Joseph Papp and the Public Theater of New York City brought a new production of Pirates to the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, one of the series of "Shakespeare in the Park" summer events. The show played for 10 previews and 35 performances. It then transferred to Broadway, opening on January 8 1981 for a run of 20 previews and 787 performances at the Uris and Minskoff Theatres. Compared to traditional productions of the opera, Papp's Pirates featured a more swashbuckling Pirate King and Frederic, and a broader, more musical comedy style of humor. It also featured an adapted orchestration and a number of key changes. The "Matter Patter" trio from Ruddigore and "Sorry her lot" from H.M.S. Pinafore were interpolated. 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, Estelle Parsons as Ruth, George Rose as the Major-General, and Tony Azito as the Sergeant of Police. Notable replacements during the run included Pam Dawber, Karla DeVito, and Maureen McGovern as Mabel; Robby Benson, Patrick Cassidy, and Peter Noone as Frederic; James Belushi, Gary Sandy, and Treat Williams as the Pirate King; George S. Irving as the Major-General; and Kaye Ballard as Ruth. The production opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on May 26 1982 for a run of 601 performances. Notable among the cast were George Cole and Ronald Fraser as the Major-General; Michael Praed and Peter Noone as Frederic; Tim Curry and Oliver Tobias as the Pirate King; Chris Langham as the Sergeant of Police; Pamela Stephenson as Mabel; and Annie Ross as Ruth. The production was turned into a film (released in 1983), with all of the original Broadway cast reprising their roles, except that Angela Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth. The film was not a success, but according to the IMDB, this "had nothing to do with the reviews, which were often quite positive. The real problem lay with Universal's decision to release the film simultaneously to SelectTV and to theaters. Theater owners were so angry that they boycotted the film; in the end, a grand total of 92 theaters agreed to show it, and it enjoyed a long run at only one of them." * Another film based loosely on the opera, The Pirate Movie, was released during the Broadway run. The production design has been widely imitated in other modern productions of Pirates, even where traditional orchestration and standard score are used. Cultural impact On February 29, 1940, the New York Times ran an article noting that Frederic was finally out of his indentures. The music to the song I am the very model of a modern Major-General has been used with numerous other fast-sung lyrics, notably as Tom Lehrer's song, The Elements. Many other parodies of this song can be found at Major-General's Song. Other tunes that have been used frequently in other contexts include: Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called "The Year of the Action", in which the protagonists try to decide whether the action of Penzance took place on March 1, 1873, or March 1, 1877. (That is, did Gilbert forget, or not know, that 1900 was not a leap year?) In Walt Disney's cartoon Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), there is a performance of The Pirates of Penzance that becomes the setting for the climactic battle between the Musketeers and Captain Pete. In the movie Kate and Leopold, there are multiple references made to The Pirates of Penzance, including a scene where Leopold sings "I Am The Very Model of A Modern Major General" and accompanies himself on the piano. In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a casino is called "Pirates in Mens' Pants", a crude play on Pirates of Penzance. Adaptations See also | ||||||||||
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