One of Musical Theatre’s most loved productions, Pirates of Penzance, has delighted and enthralled audiences all around the world since its first production in 1879. In Opera Australia’s 2006 performance of this Gilbert and Sullivan classic they showed that even after a century, this production was timeless, a true testament to the genius of her creators. Pirates of Penzance is about a young man named Frederic (David Hobson) who has been wrongly apprenticed to a band of pirates, led by the Pirate King (Anthony Warlow), since a young age. He has finally reached an age at which he can go off into the world and live as a free man. However his troubles follow him in the form of his nurse old Ruth (Suzanne Johnston) who had been the reason for his accidental apprenticeship in the
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It combines the masterful yet witty libretto of Gilbert with the simple yet beautiful melodies of Sullivan. These talents are clearly displayed in the array of popular musical numbers in this comic opera. There are several G & S traits throughout the show, the first being their clever use of rhyme throughout the play. Rhymes like “historical” and “categorical,” “cuneiform” and “uniform,” “gunnery” and “nunnery,” are not easily found outside of the score of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. They combine several styles of singing, for example, they emulate and even make fun of the aria in songs like “Poor wandering one,” and “Oh is there not one maiden.” They also include a song style they created and popularized called a “Patter Song.” Typically to enhance comedic affect they wrote songs, which were to be sung incredibly fast, that were full of creative rhymes. Songs like “I am the very model of a modern Major General,” and "When you had left our pirate fold," are examples of Patter
It combines the masterful yet witty libretto of Gilbert with the simple yet beautiful melodies of Sullivan. These talents are clearly displayed in the array of popular musical numbers in this comic opera. There are several G & S traits throughout the show, the first being their clever use of rhyme throughout the play. Rhymes like “historical” and “categorical,” “cuneiform” and “uniform,” “gunnery” and “nunnery,” are not easily found outside of the score of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera. They combine several styles of singing, for example, they emulate and even make fun of the aria in songs like “Poor wandering one,” and “Oh is there not one maiden.” They also include a song style they created and popularized called a “Patter Song.” Typically to enhance comedic affect they wrote songs, which were to be sung incredibly fast, that were full of creative rhymes. Songs like “I am the very model of a modern Major General,” and "When you had left our pirate fold," are examples of Patter