By Anne Arenstein
The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan’s fifth collaboration, premiered in 1879 and has outlasted their other 13 operettas, for good reasons. William S. Gilbert’s satiric pen took aim at less-than-deserving military appointees (this time, a modern major-general), politicians, and human foibles, while his partner, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, satirized Italian opera. Joseph Papp’s wildly successful 1980 production for New York’s Public Theater revitalized Pirates with updated orchestrations and a star-studded cast including Linda Ronstadt, Kevin Kline, and Rex Smith. Highlights from the live performance and the film adaptation are worth seeking out on YouTube.
Papp didn’t need to update anything in the script; the stage and screen versions demonstrate that the humor remains timely and classic.
Photo: Jeff Roffman/The Atlanta Opera
But Gilbert and Sullivan were targeting actual pirates who made the most of limited copyright laws. Back in the 19th century, British copyrights did not extend to the U.S., and American impresarios were only too happy to present the duo’s hugely popular H.M.S. Pinafore without having to pay royalties. Gilbert and Sullivan retaliated with The Pirates of Penzance, staging a makeshift production in New York to secure a U.S. copyright, the only work of theirs to have its world premiere outside of London.
To no avail. Although the copyright laws failed to prevent unlicensed stagings, Gilbert and Sullivan did quite well with officially authorized productions that outdrew the competition, just as they had with H.M.S. Pinafore.
And Gilbert was much kinder to his own pirates than he was to the British military and constabulary. In his topsy-turvy world, the pirates are tenderhearted and “comparatively honest,” the police run from confrontation, and the military is clueless.
Gilbert’s targets included British devotion to rectitude and personal duty. Frederic, who has been apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday, wails that he is “the slave of duty” when his birthday turns out to be February 29. Get it?
Sir Arthur set his sights on grand opera, sending up bel canto coloratura with Mabel’s bravura aria “Poor Wandering One.” Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus” is lampooned in Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous chorus, “With Cat-Like Tread.”
Photo: Jeff Roffman/The Atlanta Opera
Even Schubert comes in for parody as the Major-General sings “Sighing Softly to the River,” accompanied by “water-rippling” phrases from the strings. There’s disagreement on whether the grand chorale in the Act I finale (“Hail, Poetry”) is another Verdi sendup or a Mozart string quartet parody. Whoever the target, Sullivan’s musical settings have their own sly brilliance that are the perfect match for Gilbert’s equally brilliant wordplay.
It’s been 42 years since The Pirates of Penzance dropped anchor in Music Hall. A pick-up orchestra accompanied the cast, most of whom were members of the young artists program.
This time around, Pirates makes a triumphant return with the CSO in the pit and a cast of world-class professionals, some of whom have performed, staged, or conducted Gilbert and Sullivan as well as Verdi, Donizetti, and Mozart.
Welcome back, friends who plow the seas! We’ve missed ye.
Anne Arenstein is a freelance writer whose work appears in City Beat, Parterre, and Cincinnati Fanfare. She wrote a chapter on new works for Cincinnati Opera: A Centennial Celebration.