"THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, or the Slave of Duty," as first produced at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York on December 31, 1879, and, also, for copyright purposes one performance was given in England on the previous day at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton. The first performance in London, however, was not until April 3, 1880, when it was produced at the Opera Comique.

Who’s Who - The Cast of Characters

Richard, a Pirate King
Samuel, his Lieutenant
Frederic, a Pirate Apprentice
Major-General Stanley, of the British Army
Edward, a Sergeant of Police
Mabel, General Stanley's Youngest Daughter
Kate  }
Edith } General Stanley's Daughters
Ruth, A Piratical Maid-of-all-work

Chorus of General Stanley's Daughters, Pirates, Policemen, Etc.

The Story

On the coast of Cornwall, a gang of pirates play and party as Frederic (a pirate apprentice) reminds the pirate king that his obligation to the gang is soon over. He was apprenticed to the pirates only until his twenty-first birthday, which is that day, and he is leaving them.  Ruth (Frederic’s nursery maid when he was younger) explains that Frederic should never have been a pirate except for her mistake: she was told to apprentice Frederic to a pilot, but she misunderstood and placed him with a pirate instead.

Frederic tells the pirates that, after he leaves the gang, he intends to destroy them, not because he doesn’t love them, but because he loathes what they do. He is a slave of duty and, when no longer a pirate, it will be his duty to destroy them. The pirates understand, and complain that they cannot seem to make money. Because Fredric is a slave-of-duty to the pirates until noon, he tells them why: because they are all orphans, the pirates will not rob another orphan; and since all their potential victims are aware of this, they all claim to be orphans!

Because Fredric spent his entire life with the pirates, he has never seen another woman; thus he thinks he may want to take Ruth with him as his wife. He asks Ruth if she is beautiful, and she responds that she is. Frederic, a very trusting young man, says that he believes Ruth and he will not let her age come between them. At this point, however, Frederic hears a chorus of girls in the vicinity. He sees a group of beautiful young women and he realizes he was betrayed by Ruth, and rejects her. Frederic informs the girls that he is a pirate, but not for long. He asks if any of the girls will marry him, and the youngest, Mabel, agrees.

The pirates enter the scene, and each grabs a girl. Major-General Stanley enters and identifies himself as the girls’ father, demanding to know what is taking place. When the pirates tell Major-General Stanley that they intend to marry his daughters, he objects, saying he has an aversion to having pirates as sons-in-laws; the pirates respond that they are opposed to having major-generals as fathers-in-laws, but they will put aside the objection.

Knowing about the pirates’ weakness, Major-General Stanley tells them he is an orphan and, thus, disarms the pirates and takes his daughters, along with Frederic, away to his family chapel and estate.  Major-General, who is actually not an orphan, soon feels guilty about the lie he told the pirates. Frederic, however has a plan to lead a squad of zany policeman against his old gang.

Before he can ac t, however, the pirate king and Ruth arrive to tell him that he is still obligated to the pirates. Because Frederic was born on February 29th of a leap year, he has served only five birthdays, not the twenty-one required by his contract.

A strong sense of duty forces Frederic to relent, and, because he is a member again of the pirate band, to reveal the truth that the Major-General is not an orphan. The pirate king vows that he will have revenge on the Major-General.

Mabel enters and begs Frederic not to go back to the pirates, but bound by duty, he leaves. The police ready their attack on the pirates, while the pirates creep in to take revenge on the Major-General.

The pirates defeat the police. However, when Ruth divulges that the pirates are really noblemen and they swear allegiance to the queen, the tables are turned, and the police take the pirates prisoner.  However, because the pirates have never really hurt anyone, they are soon forgiven. The ex-pirates win the girls, Frederic wins Mabel, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The Composer – Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900)

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan was born in Lambeth, London, in 1842 to a very musical family. His father was a bandmaster at the Royal Military College and before age 10 Sullivan had mastered all of the wind instruments in his father's band. Sullivan composed his own anthem when he was 8 years old.

At age 14 he entered, as the youngest participant, and won the competition for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship. He also won scholarships at several prominent academies and conservatories, the last of which was located in Germany where Franz List listened to Sullivan's final "thesis." Sullivan returned to England at age 20, wrote the "Tempest" and became famous.

For the next ten years Sullivan was a professor of music, a teacher, and an organist. Regarded as the leading composer of the day, Sullivan had many influential friends in every circle of society including many monarchs in Europe. In addition to composing "Onward Christian Soldiers," Sullivan also composed several major choral works, including The Light of the World, The Martyr of Antioch, The Golden Legend, and his lone grand opera, Ivanhoe.

Sullivan's first venture into comic opera was in 1867, with writer F.C. Brunand. Together they produced Cox and Box and The Contrabandista.

In the period from 1871 to 1896, Sullivan collaborated with W.S Gilbert on fourteen comic operas. The Grand Duke, last in the line, premiered March 7, 1896.

From 1872 until his death in 1900, Sullivan suffered from extremely painful kidney stones and it is said that his most beautiful music was composed while he endured great pain. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1883.

The Librettist – William S. Gilbert (1836 – 1911)

 William Schwenck Gilbert, born in London in 1836, was the son of a retired naval surgeon. Except for a kidnapping by Italian brigands in Italy at age two, and a ransomed release, he appears to have had a very normal upbringing. Beyond ordinary schooling, he took training as an artillery officer and was tutored in military science with hopes of participating in the Crimean War. Unfortunately for him, but not for us, he did not graduate until after the War was over. Gilbert subsequently joined the militia and was a member for 20 years.

After finishing his military training Gilbert worked in a government bureau job which he hated. Upon receiving a nice inheritance from an aunt, Gilbert indulged his fancy and became a barrister. Called to the bar at age 28, Gilbert's law career, with no "rich attorney's elderly, ugly daughter" to help him escape mediocrity, lasted just a few years. Before leaving his law practice, however, he married the daughter of an army officer.

Gilbert had shown a proclivity for caustic wit and sarcasm from an early age and it was this talent that put him on the path to greatness. Beginning in 1861, Gilbert contributed dramatic criticism and humorous verse (unsigned) to the popular British magazine FUN. Some of his work was accompanied by cartoons and sketches which were signed "Bab." Many of the characters in the G&S operas were modelled after some of Gilbert's "Bab" characters. A collection of these Bab Ballads was later published in 1869.

The period from 1868 to 1875 was a very fruitful period for Gilbert, primarily because two plays which he wrote in 1871 netted him huge financial rewards. This was also the year that he collaborated briefly with a composer named Sullivan on a production entitled Thespis which did not bring the duo any notoriety. Their collaboration, however, spanned twenty-five years and produced a total of fourteen comic operas of which The Grand Duke, the last in the order, premiered in 1896.

Gilbert was knighted by Edward VII in 1907 and died in 1911, at age 74, while attempting to save a drowning woman.

The Comic Opera’s Premiere

The first ever copyrighted performance of Pirates took place in Paignton, South Devon, at the Royal Bijou Theatre on December 30, 1879.

Costumes were not ready; the actors had to improvise from what they had - mainly bits and pieces from their wardrobes for their previous wardrobes for HMS Pinafore. The policemen wore sailor's garb. The music was incomplete, as was the script. There was time for only one rehearsal.

The singers had to carry their music with them on the stage. However there was at least one London critic present who approved of the opera.

There are several instances in the various operetta of Gilbert and Sullivan where certain numbers were cut after the opening performance, either because the said number was controversial or just to speed up a 'dragging' production.

In The Pirates of Penzance one number, the 'Hymn to the Nobility' was performed only once, in the performance given at Paignton:

Let foreigners look down with scorn
On legislators heaven born
We know what limpid wisdom runs
From Peers and all their eldest Sons:
Enrapt the true born Briton hears
The wisdom of his House of Peers.

Because international copyright was in a state of chaotic uncertainty, it was decided to try and produce Pirates simultaneously in America and England.

Consequently, it was also performed at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, on December 31, 1879.

It was first performed in London at the Opera Comique on April 3, 1880.

An early review of Pirates of Penzance was published in The Monthly Musical Record.

Web sites used as sources: www.classicalworks.com, www.timelines.ws/1880_1890, www.inventors.about.com

What In The World . . .?

The Pirates of Penzance  was first performed in 1880. Listed below are other events that took place in the decade of 1880 to 1890.  * indicates events of local interest

Web sites used as sources: www.classicalworks.com, www.timelines.ws/1880_1890, www.inventors.about.com

World Events, American History & Social Sciences        

• Jan 3, Grace Coolidge (Goodhue) First Lady: wife of 30th U.S. President Calvin Coolidge [1923-29], was born.
• Jan 5, The shares of Homestake Mining Co. began trading on the NY Stock Exchange.
• Jan 11, The Zulu war against British colonial rule in South Africa began 
• Feb 11, Honore Daumier (b.1808), French caricaturist, painter, died.
• Feb 15, President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
• Feb 25, Congress passed the 1st Timberland Protection Act.
• Mar 3, Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood became the 1st female lawyer heard by the US Supreme Court.
• Mar 14, Physicist Albert Einstein, mathematician best known for his theories on relativity was born in Ulm, Germany. He received the Physics Nobel Prize in 1921.
• Apr 16, Saint Bernadette, who had described seeing visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, died in Nevers, France.

1879

May 16, Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the state of Afghanistan.

Literature, Drama & Non-Fiction

• Jan 1, E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (d.1970), English novelist famous for "A Passage to India" and "A Room With a View," was born in London. His novels exemplified his ideas about the conflict between the imaginative and the earthy component of the human soul and character.

1879

Apr 9, W.C. Fields (Claude William Dukinfield [Dukenfield]), comedian, was born in Philadelphia. He began his career as a vaudeville juggler, appeared on Broadway and in motion pictures.

Visual Art

• Jan 1, William Fox, US film pioneer (Nickelodeon), was born.

1879

Mar 27, Edward Steichen, pioneer of American photography, was born.

Music

Year	Event
1881	Henri Vieuxtemps, French violinist and composer, dies
1881	Bela Bartok, Hungarian composer, born
1881	Brahms: "Academic Festival Overture," Opus 80, Breslau
1881	Moussorgsky dies
1881	Offenbach: "Les Contes d'Hoffman," Post. opera, Paris
1882	Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer, born
1882	Millocker: "Der Bettelstudent," operetta, Vienna
1882	Tchaichovsky: "1812 Overture"
1882	Gounod: "The Redemption," oratorio, Birmingham
1882	Rimsky-Korsakov:" The Snow Maiden," opera, St Petersburg
1882	Gilbert and Sullivan: " Iolanthe," London
1882	Wagner: "Parsifal," Bayreuth
1882	Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra founded
1882	Debussy: "Le Printemps," orchestral suite
1883	Robert Volkmann, German composer, dies
1883	Chabrier: "Espana, " rhapsody
1883	Metropolitan Opera House, New York, opened
1883	Royal College of Music, London, founded
1883	Delibes: "Lakme," opera, Paris
1883	Richard Wagner, German opera composer, dies
1883	Friedrich von Flotow, German composer, dies
1883	Anton von Webern, Austrian composer, born
1884	Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer, dies
1884	Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Opus 90
1884	Bruckner: Symphony No. 7, Leipzig
1884	Cesar Franck: "Les Djinns," symphonic poem
1884	Massenet: "Manon" opera, Paris
1884	C.V. Stanford: "Savonarola," opera, Hamburg
1884	Gustav Mahler: "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen"
1884	Vicktor Nessler: "Der Trompeter von Sackingen," opera, Leipzig
1885	Leopold Damrosch, German- American comductor, dies
1885	Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98
1885	Cesar Franck: "Symphonie Variations"
1885	Gilbert and Sullivan: "The Mikado," London
1885	Alan Berg, Austrian composer, born
1885	Anna Pavlova, Russian ballet dancer, born
1885	Strauss: " The Gypsy Baron," operetta, Vienna
1886	Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer, dies
1886	Wilhelm Furtwangler, German conductor, born
1886	Charles Mustel of Paris invents the celesta
1887	Aleksandr Borodin, Russian composer, dies
1887	Sir John Stainer: "The Crucifixion," oratorio
1887	Chabrier: "Le Roi malgre lui," opera, Paris
1887	Richard Strauss: "Aus Italien," tone poems, Munich
1887	Verdi: "Otello," opera, Milan
1887	Gilbert and Sullivan: " Ruddigore," London
1887	Ignace Paderewski gives his first recital in Vienna
1887	Bruckner: "Te Deum"
1888	Gilbert and Sullivan: "The Yeoman of the Guard,"London
1888	irving Berlin, American composer, born
1888	Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5, St. Petersburg
1888	Rimsky-Korsakov: "Sheherazade," opus 35, symphonic suite, St. Petersburg
1888	Gustav Mahler becomes musical director of the Budapest Opera
1889	Cesar Franck: Symphony in D Major
1889	Richard Strauss: "Don Juan," symphonic poem, Weimar
1889	Gilbert and Sullivan: "The Gondoliers," London
1890	Cesar Franck dies
1890	Bruckner: Symphonies No. 3 and 4 last versions
1890	Richard Strauss: "Toid und Verklarung"
1890	Borodin: "Prince Igor," opera, St. Petersburg, (posth.)
1890	Pietro Mascagni: "Cavalleria Rusticana," opera, Rome
1890	Tchaikovsky:"Quenn of Spades," opera, St. Petersburg

Physical Sciences & Inventions

• Feb 5, Joseph Swan demonstrated a light bulb using carbon glow.
• Feb 10, The 1st electric arc light was used in a California Theater. The first electric arc lights were installed in Cleveland in this year. Some women complained that the white light blanched their complexions in a most ghastly manner.
• Feb 27, Constantine Fahlberg discovered saccharin, an artificial sweetener.

1879

Mar 8, Otto Hahn, German co-discoverer of nuclear fission, was born. He received a Nobel Prize in 1944.

Miscellaneous

• Feb 12, 1st artificial ice rink in North America was at Madison Square Garden, NYC.
• Feb 22, Frank Winfield Woolworth's 'nothing over five cents' shop opened at Utica, New York. It was the first chain store. The "Great 5-Cent Store" failed within weeks.
• Mar 13, New England Telephone and Bell Telephone merged to become the National Bell Telephone Co.
• Apr 8, Milk was sold in glass bottles for the 1st time.

1879

Apr 20, The first mobile home (horse drawn) was used in a journey from London to Cyprus.

Tell Us What You Really Think!

Imagine that you’re the music critic for the local newspaper and write a review of the opera performance.  Use this as a creative writing exercise – feel free to express your opinions, ideas and impressions of the performance. Please send us a copy; we might even print your comments in a future issue of Top Notes, the Toledo Opera newsletter, or post it on our web site (with your permission, of course!).