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113-543: Built in 1868, it was managed by Augustin Daly in the mid-1870s. In 1877, it became the first air-conditioned theatre in the world. In 1879, it presented the world premiere of The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan and the New York D'Oyly Carte Opera Company premiere of H.M.S. Pinafore , followed by other Gilbert and Sullivan operas throughout the 1880s. The theatre continued to present both plays and musicals through

226-536: A Mozart string quartet." Another well-known parody number from the work is the song for coloratura , "Poor wand'ring one", which is generally thought to burlesque Gounod 's waltz-songs, though the music critic of The Times called it "mock- Donizetti ". In a scene in Act ;II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of an Anglican church service. Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The critic Rodney Milnes describes

339-671: A Tribute to the Actress and the Woman (1888). He died on 7th June 1899 in Paris aged 60 and laid to rest in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens County, New York, US. Dora Knowlton Ranous , a onetime actress in the Daly company, published a 1910 memoir of her experiences entitled Diary of a Daly Débutante. Under the Gaslight (1867) is an example of Daly's mixture of realism and melodrama, seen in

452-405: A birthday only once each leap year . His indenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday", meaning that he must serve for another 63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty to honour his bond with the pirates, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. The pirates' maid-of-all-work, Ruth, eventually reveals a fact that saves

565-524: A comic opera, The Contrabandista , in 1867, about a hapless British tourist who is captured by bandits and forced to become their chief. Gilbert had written several comic works that involved pirates or bandits. In Gilbert's 1876 opera Princess Toto , the title character is eager to be captured by a brigand chief. Gilbert had translated Jacques Offenbach 's operetta Les brigands , in 1871. As in Les brigands , The Pirates of Penzance absurdly treats stealing as

678-894: A company of singing actors, to play both Pinafore and the new opera, including J. H. Ryley as Sir Joseph, Blanche Roosevelt as Josephine, Alice Barnett as Little Buttercup, Furneaux Cook as Dick Deadeye, Hugh Talbot as Ralph Rackstraw and Jessie Bond as Cousin Hebe, some of whom had been in the Pinafore cast in London. To these, he added some American singers, including Signor Brocolini as Captain Corcoran. Alfred Cellier came to assist Sullivan, while his brother François Cellier remained in London to conduct Pinafore there. Gilbert and Sullivan cast talented actors who were not well-known stars and did not command high fees. They then tailored their operas to

791-731: A country that had been subject to Gilbert's copyright (other than Williamsons' authorised productions) was in Stratford, Ontario , Canada, in September 1961, as the copyright expired. In 1979, the Torbay branch of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society presented a centenary tribute to the world premiere performance of Pirates in Paignton, with a production at the Palace Avenue Theatre (situated a few metres from

904-456: A felon's not engaged in his employment", adding, "There could never be any doubt as to who wrote that , and it is as English as our wonderful police themselves." Because the work was premiered in three different places (the Paignton performance and the full productions in New York and London), there are more variations in the early libretto and score of The Pirates of Penzance than in other Gilbert and Sullivan works. Songs sent from New York to

1017-419: A few dissenting comments: The Manchester Guardian thought both author and composer had drawn on the works of their predecessors: "Mr. Gilbert ... seems to have borrowed an idea from Sheridan 's The Critic ; Mr. Sullivan's music is sprightly, tuneful and full of 'go', although it is certainly lacking in originality." The Sporting Times noted, "It doesn't appear to have struck any of the critics yet that

1130-519: A great favourite in Sullivan's formative years, may have been the model for Sullivan's trademark contrapuntal mingling of the rapid prattle of the women's chorus in Act I ("How beautifully blue the sky") in 2/4 time with the lovers' duet in waltz time. Jacobs writes that "the whole number [shifts] with Schubertian ease from B to G and back again." In Act II, a double chorus combines the policemen's dogged tune, "When

1243-499: A group of thugs to the Opera Comique to seize the scenery and props during the evening performance of Pinafore . See Ainger, p. 170 and Jacobs, pp. 124–125. Stagehands and cast members managed to ward off their backstage attackers and protect the scenery. The police arrived to restore order, and the show continued. See Stedman, pp. 170–171 and Gillan, Don. "The Fracas at the Opera Comique" , The Theatre , 1 September 1879, reprinted at

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1356-441: A hitherto unknown comic world of sheer delight." Gilbert acted as stage director for his own plays and operas. He sought naturalism in acting, which was unusual at the time, just as he strove for realistic visual elements. He deprecated self-conscious interaction with the audience and insisted on a style of portrayal in which the characters were never aware of their own absurdity but were coherent internal wholes. Sullivan conducted

1469-500: A lugubrious comic number for the Sergeant of Police ... a song of confession for Ruth, the successor [to] Little Buttercup", romantic material for Frederic and Mabel, and "ensemble and chorus music in turn pretty, parodic and atmospheric." Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte met by 24 April 1879 to make plans for a production of Pinafore and the new opera in America. Carte travelled to New York in

1582-439: A mistake "through being hard of hearing": Mishearing Frederic's father's instructions, she apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship's pilot ("When Frederic was a little lad"). Frederic has never seen any woman other than Ruth, and he believes her to be beautiful. The pirates know better and suggest that Frederic take Ruth with him when he returns to civilisation. Frederic announces that, although it pains him, so strong

1695-623: A music critic, praised "the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart and Rossini , chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General in The Pirates or the Colonel in Patience ." This opera contains two well-known examples of Sullivan's characteristic combination of two seemingly disparate melodies. Jacobs suggests that Berlioz 's La damnation de Faust ,

1808-561: A musical, Lost, Strayed or Stolen , by J. Cheever Goodwin and Woolson Morse . Among the plays presented in 1897 were A Superfluous Husband by Clyde Fitch and Leo Ditrichstein , Dr. Claudius by F. Marion Crawford , Harry St. Maur , a revival of Sardou's Divorçons , A Southern Romance by Leo Ditrichstein , B. B. Valentine , The Devil's Disciple by George Bernard Shaw , Alexandra by Richard Voss and The Royal Box by Charles Francis Coghlan. Notable works presented in 1898 included Henrik Ibsen 's drama Hedda Gabler and

1921-423: A new orchestration and arrangements that changed keys, added repeats, lengthened dance music and made other minor changes in the score. The "Matter Patter" trio from Ruddigore and "Sorry her lot" from H.M.S. Pinafore , two other Gilbert and Sullivan operas, were interpolated into the show. The production also restored Gilbert and Sullivan's original New York ending, with a reprise of the Major-General's song in

2034-534: A pirate "chief", Captain Bang. Bang was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate band as a child by his deaf nursemaid. Also, Bang, like Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance , had never seen a woman before and felt a keen sense of duty, as an apprenticed pirate, until the passage of his 21st birthday freed him from his articles of indenture. Bernard Shaw believed that Gilbert drew on ideas in Les brigands for his new libretto, including

2147-510: A professional career path, with apprentices and tools of the trade such as the crowbar and life preserver . While Pinafore was running strongly at the Opera Comique in London, Gilbert was eager to get started on his and Sullivan's next opera, and he began working on the libretto in December 1878. He re-used several elements of his 1870 one-act piece, Our Island Home , which had introduced

2260-400: A third lower still." In The Music of Arthur Sullivan (1959), Hughes quoted four extracts from Pirates , saying that if hearing each out of context one might attribute it to Schubert, Mendelssohn , Gounod or Bizet respectively, "yet on learning the truth one would kick oneself for not having recognised Sullivan's touch in all four." Hughes concluded by quoting the introductory bars of "When

2373-597: Is all Gilbert does. ... The music is infinitely superior in every way to the Pinafore – 'tunier' and more developed, of a higher class altogether. I think that in time it will be very popular." Shortly thereafter, Carte sent three touring companies around the United States East Coast and Midwest, playing Pirates and Pinafore . Sullivan's prediction was correct. After a strong run in New York and several American tours, Pirates opened in London on 3 April 1880, running for 363 performances there. It remains one of

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2486-404: Is an orphan to elicit their sympathy ("Oh, men of dark and dismal fate"). The soft-hearted pirates release the girls ("Hail, Poetry!"), making Major-General Stanley and his daughters honorary members of their band ("Pray observe the magnanimity"). The Major-General sits in a ruined chapel on his estate, surrounded by his daughters. His conscience is tortured by the lie that he told the pirates, and

2599-429: Is fresh, bright, elegant and merry, and much of it belongs to a higher order of art than the most popular of the tunes of Pinafore ." The New York Times also praised the work, writing, "it would be impossible for a confirmed misanthrope to refrain from merriment over it", though the paper doubted if Pirates could repeat the prodigious success of Pinafore . After the London premiere, the critical consensus, led by

2712-481: Is his sense of duty that, once free from his apprenticeship, he will be forced to devote himself to the pirates' extermination. He also points out that they are not successful pirates: since they are all orphans, they allow their prey to go free if they too are orphans. Frederic notes that word of this has got about, so captured ships' companies routinely claim to be orphans. Frederic invites the pirates to give up piracy and go with him, so that he need not destroy them, but

2825-486: Is in his eighties. Frederic is convinced by this logic and agrees to rejoin the pirates. He then sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General's deception. The outraged outlaw declares that the pirates' "revenge will be swift and terrible" ("Away, away, my heart's on fire"). Frederic meets Mabel ("All is prepared"), and she pleads with him to stay ("Stay Frederic, stay"), but he feels bound by his duty to

2938-472: Is over....' Now will you please let me have them, and the parts of Thespis also at once. I am detaining the parts of Pinafore , so that the directors shall not take them away from the Comique tomorrow, and I base my claim on the precedent you set." See Rees, p. 89. The Comedy Opera Company directors engaged another theatre to play a rival production of Pinafore , but they had no scenery. On 31 July, they sent

3051-567: Is pure melodrama, with water and fire spectacles providing action scenes and special effects for its eager audiences. Horizon (1871) is an adaptation of a Bret Harte story about the westward expansion of the States; it is an example of the popularity of western drama, coupled with Daly's interest in realism of the local color variety, although it remains melodramatic. Divorce (1871) and Pique (1875), both adaptations of British novels, demonstrate Daly's attempts to create social comedy, although

3164-502: Is set to direct, with choreography by Warren Carlyle . Roundabout Theatre Company is producing. Designs are by David Rockwell (sets), Linda Cho (costumes), Donald Holder (lighting) and Mikaal Sulaiman (sound). A concert of this concept was staged in October 2022 by, and for the benefit of, Roundabout, at the same theatre, with the same creative team, starring Pierce and Karimloo, with Colton Ryan as Frederic. The following table shows

3277-427: Is so dear to all" ("When a felon's not engaged in his employment"). The police hide on hearing the approach of the pirates ("A rollicking band of pirates we"), who have stolen onto the estate, intending to take revenge for the Major-General's lie ("With cat-like tread"). Just then, Major-General Stanley appears, sleepless with guilt, and the pirates also hide ("Hush, hush! not a word"), while the Major-General listens to

3390-470: Is written throughout for voices and instruments with infinite care, and the issue is a cabinet miniature of exquisitely defined proportions. ... That the Pirates is a clear advance upon its precursors, from Trial by Jury to H.M.S. Pinafore , cannot be denied; it contains more variety, marked character, careful workmanship, and is in fact a more finished artistic achievement … a brilliant success. There were

3503-603: The Tribune both dedicated considerable space to their reviews. The Herald took the view that "the new work is in every respect superior to the Pinafore , the text more humorous, the music more elegant and more elaborate." The Tribune called it "a brilliant and complete success", commenting, "The humor of the Pirates is richer, but more recondite. It demands a closer attention to the words [but] there are great stores of wit and drollery ... which will well repay exploration. ... The music

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3616-605: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company , the first official U.S. productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, beginning with H.M.S. Pinafore and the world premiere of The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, and several other Savoy operas continuing through the 1880s. In 1887, the theatre presented The Begum by Reginald De Koven . The theatre was rebuilt after a fire in 1891, and in 1894, it presented European plays, Hannele by Gerhart Hauptmann and Gismonda by Victorien Sardou . In 1896, productions included Pamela Nubile by Carlo Goldoni , The Speculator by George Broadhurst , and

3729-739: The Delacorte Theatre in Central Park , as a Shakespeare in the Park summer event. Musical direction and arrangements were by William Elliott. The show played for 10 previews and 35 performances. It then transferred to Broadway, opening on 8 January 1981 for a run of 20 previews and 787 regular performances at the Uris and Minskoff Theatres, the longest run of any Gilbert and Sullivan production in history. This take on Pirates earned enthusiastic reviews and seven Tony Award nominations, winning three, including

3842-619: The Fifth Avenue Theatre . The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1891 and rebuilt by architect Francis Hatch Kimball in highly ornate neoclassical style, opening in May 1892. The ornate entrance of the new structure faced Broadway for a time, but later the Fifth Avenue entrance was used as the main entrance. Henry Miner managed the theatre in the 1890s, and F. F. Proctor took control in 1900. He presented mainly vaudeville there and, by 1915,

3955-523: The Tony Award for Best Revival and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical , and spawning many imitations and a 1983 film adaptation . Pirates remains popular today, taking its place along with The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore as one of the most frequently played Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The Pirates of Penzance was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have its official premiere in

4068-407: The overture for the last moment, often sketching it out and entrusting completion of "the details" to an assistant, in this case the company's music director, Alfred Cellier. Pinafore opened in New York on 1 December 1879 and ran for the rest of December. After a reasonably strong first week, audiences quickly fell off, since most New Yorkers had already seen local productions of Pinafore . In

4181-593: The "Burton Association" or the "Murdoch Association" were the precursors of the Little Theatre Movement . He was a dramatic critic for several New York papers from 1859, and he adapted or wrote a number of plays, Under the Gaslight (1867) being his first success. In 1869 he became the manager of the Fifth Avenue Theatre on 24th St. and in 1873 the Fifth Avenue Theatre on 28th. In 1879 he rebuilt and opened Daly's Theatre on Broadway and 30th Street in New York, and, in 1893, Daly's Theatre in London. At

4294-574: The "Comedy Opera Company". Carte formed a new partnership with Gilbert and Sullivan to divide profits equally among themselves after the expenses of each of their shows. Sullivan wrote to a former producer, John Hollingshead of the Gaiety Theatre , saying: "You once settled a precedent for me which may just at present be of great importance to me. I asked you for the band parts of the Merry Wives of Windsor ... and [you] said, 'They are yours, as our run

4407-467: The 1908 revival Gilbert had the pirates yielding "in good King Edward's name". Despite Helen Carte 's repeated urging, Gilbert did not prepare an authorised version of the libretti of the Savoy operas . In its 1989 production, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company restored one of the original versions of the finale, which finishes with a variation of "I am the very model of a modern major-general", rather than with

4520-578: The Act II finale. Linda Ronstadt starred as Mabel, Rex Smith as Frederic, Kevin Kline as the Pirate King, Patricia Routledge as Ruth (replaced by Estelle Parsons for the Broadway transfer), George Rose as the Major-General, and Tony Azito as the Sergeant of Police. Kline won a Tony Award for his performance. Smith won a Theatre World Award , and Kline and Azito won Drama Desk Awards. Notable replacements during

4633-697: The British copyright , a D'Oyly Carte touring company gave a perfunctory copyright performance of Pirates the afternoon before the New York premiere, at the Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton , Devon, organised by Helen Lenoir , who would later marry Richard D'Oyly Carte. The cast, which was performing Pinafore in the evenings in Torquay , received some of the music for Pirates only two days beforehand. Having had only one rehearsal, they travelled to nearby Paignton for

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4746-409: The Broadway run included Karla DeVito , Maureen McGovern and Pam Dawber as Mabel; Robby Benson , Patrick Cassidy and Peter Noone as Frederic; Treat Williams , Gary Sandy , James Belushi and Wally Kurth as the Pirate King; David Garrison as the Sergeant; George S. Irving as the Major-General; and Kaye Ballard as Ruth. The Los Angeles cast of the production featured Barry Bostwick as

4859-546: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Richard Suart played Major-General Stanley and Nicholas Sharratt played Frederic. A Broadway production titled Pirates! The Penzance Musical is set to run at the Todd Haimes Theatre , with previews from 4 April 2025, and an official opening on 24 April; it is expected to play through 22 June 2025. It is set to star David Hyde Pierce as Gilbert/Major General Stanley; Ramin Karimloo as

4972-466: The D'Oyly Carte touring company in England for the Paignton premiere were then altered or omitted during Broadway rehearsals. Gilbert and Sullivan trimmed the work for the London premiere, and Gilbert made further alterations up to and including the 1908 Savoy revival. For example, early versions depicted the Pirate King as the servant of the pirate band, and the words of the opening chorus were, "Pour, O King,

5085-408: The D'Oyly Carte touring repertory in 1893 and was never again absent until the company's closure in 1982. New costumes were designed by Percy Anderson in 1919 and George Sheringham in 1929 (who also executed a new Act I set). Peter Goffin created a new touring set in 1957. In America, after the New York opening on New Year's Eve, 1879, Richard D'Oyly Carte launched four companies that covered

5198-425: The Major-General's Act II song, "Sighing softly to the river", "as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's hero Schubert ", and Amanda Holden speaks of the song's "Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment", but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi's Il trovatore , with the soloist unaware of a concealed male chorus singing behind him. Writing about patter songs , Shaw, in his capacity as

5311-438: The Pirate King says that, contrasted with respectability, piracy is comparatively honest ("Oh! better far to live and die"). The pirates depart, leaving Frederic and Ruth. Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls approaching the pirate lair, and realises that Ruth misled him about her appearance ("Oh false one! You have deceived me!"). Sending Ruth away, Frederic hides before the girls arrive. The girls burst exuberantly upon

5424-426: The Pirate King, Jinkx Monsoon as Ruth, Nicholas Barasch as Frederic, Samantha Williams as Mabel and Preston Truman Boyd as Sullivan/Sergeant of Police. Rupert Holmes adapted the libretto with a New Orleans setting. New orchestrations with Caribbean and French Quarter influences are by Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters , with Joubert serving as music director; dance arrangements are by John O'Neill. Scott Ellis

5537-478: The Pirate King, Jo Anne Worley as Ruth, Clive Revill as the Major-General, Dawber as Mabel, Paxton Whitehead as the Sergeant, Caroline Peyton as Edith and Andy Gibb as Frederic. The production opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane , London, on 26 May 1982, to generally warm reviews, for a run of 601 performances, earning an Olivier Award nomination as Outstanding Musical and another for Tim Curry as

5650-535: The Pirate King. Among the cast were George Cole and Ronald Fraser as the Major-General; Pamela Stephenson as Mabel; Michael Praed and Peter Noone as Frederic; Curry, Timothy Bentinck , Oliver Tobias and Paul Nicholas as the Pirate King; Chris Langham as the Sergeant; Annie Ross as Ruth; Bonnie Langford as Kate; and Louise Gold as Isabel. The Australian production opened in Melbourne in January 1984, opening

5763-514: The Stage Beauty website, accessed 6 May 2009. See also "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", The Era , 10 August 1879, p. 5 and "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", The Leeds Mercury , 13 August 1879, p. 8. The matter was eventually settled in court, where a judge ruled in Carte's favour about two years later. See Ainger, p. 175</ref> In November 1879, Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte sailed to America with

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5876-687: The US have included the American Savoyards (1953–67), the Light Opera of Manhattan (1968–89) and the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (1976–present). As discussed below, Joseph Papp 's 1980–83 Pirates ran for nearly two years each on Broadway and in the West End , boosting the opera's popularity. Professional and amateur productions of the opera continue with frequency. For example, in 2004, there

5989-607: 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. In Australia, its first authorised performance was on 19 March 1881 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, produced by J. C. Williamson . There

6102-435: The United States. At the time, American law offered no copyright protection to foreigners. After the pair's previous opera, H.M.S. Pinafore , achieved success in London in 1878, approximately 150 American companies quickly mounted unauthorised productions that often took considerable liberties with the text and paid no royalties to the creators. Gilbert and Sullivan hoped to forestall further "copyright piracy" by mounting

6215-578: The attention of a much wider and younger audience. The Papp production design has been widely imitated in later productions of Pirates , even where traditional orchestration and the standard score are used. Some modern productions are also influenced by the Disney film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean , combining aspects of the Papp production with the Disney design concepts. Not all of these revivals have generated

6328-469: The authenticity of his depiction of real locations and in his use of social commentary. The play introduced the now-clichéd device of the villain tying someone to railroad tracks, although in a reversal of the usual roles it was the hero who was tied up and the heroine who saved him. In the book Vagrant Memories, the author, William Winter recalls how Daly came up with the device. He says: "He once told me under what circumstances he hit upon this device. He

6441-420: The award for Best Revival and for Leach as director. It was also nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards , winning five, including Outstanding Musical and director. Compared with traditional productions of the opera, Papp's Pirates featured a more swashbuckling Pirate King and Frederic, and a broader, more musical comedy style of singing and humour. It did not significantly change the libretto, but it used

6554-455: The businesslike bandits and the bumbling police. Gilbert and Sullivan also inserted into Act II an idea they first considered for a one-act opera parody in 1876 about burglars meeting police, while their conflict escapes the notice of the oblivious father of a large family of girls. As in Pinafore , "there was a wordful self-descriptive set-piece for Stanley [" The Major-General's Song "], introducing himself much as Sir Joseph Porter had done ...

6667-574: The central idea in The Pirates of Penzance is taken from Our Island Home , which was played by the German Reeds some ten years ago." The Times thought Gilbert's wit outran his dramatic invention, and Sullivan's music for the new work was not quite as good as his score for The Sorcerer , which the Times critic called a masterpiece. The overture to The Pirates of Penzance was composed by Sullivan and his musical assistant Alfred Cellier . It follows

6780-495: 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 of this chorus altered from their original arrangement as a four-part chorus. Some scholars (e.g. Tillett and Spencer, 2000) have suggested that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use "Climbing over rocky mountain," and perhaps other parts of Thespis . They argue that Sullivan's having brought

6893-555: The curb and bestow upon the low, untried actor a chance at greatness" earned him the nickname "Little Man Auggie" among his peers. His play Leah the Forsaken , adapted from Hermann Salomon Mosenthal 's Deborah , was a star vehicle for Margaret Mather . His Shakespeare productions were often severely criticized by George Bernard Shaw , who was active as a drama critic during those years. Shaw took Daly to task for cutting Shakespeare's plays and for presenting them in unorthodox ways. (Shaw

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7006-608: The customary reprise of "Poor wand'ring one", but in later revivals, it reverted to the more familiar text. 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 at the Savoy Theatre in 1888 and in 1900, and for the Savoy's repertory season of 1908–09. In the British provinces, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured it almost continuously from 1880 to 1884, and again in 1888. It re-entered

7119-483: The day. Pirates was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied " Major-General's Song ". The opera was performed for over a century by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain until the copyrights expired and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions include Joseph Papp 's 1981 Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning

7232-473: The end of the century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the theatre presented English classics and then vaudeville , and later films, as well as plays and musicals. The theatre was built in 1868 and was originally named Gilsey's Apollo Hall , in 1870 renamed the St. James Theatre . Its capacity was approximately 1,530 seats. In its early years, it offered lectures in the upstairs hall and musical entertainment in

7345-752: The first of these, he gathered a company of players, headed by Ada Rehan , which made for it a high reputation, and for them he adapted plays from foreign sources, and revived Shakespearean comedies in a manner before unknown in America. He took his entire company on tour, visiting England, Germany and France, and some of the best actors on the American stage have owed their training and first successes to him. Among these were Clara Morris , Sara Jewett, John Drew, Jr. , Maurice Barrymore , Fanny Davenport , Agnes Ethel , Maude Adams , Mrs. Gilbert , Tyrone Power, Sr. , Ada Dyas , Isadora Duncan , Maud Jeffries and many others. Daly's willingness to, as he put it, "stoop to

7458-528: The first production of their next opera in America, before others could copy it, and by delaying publication of the score and libretto. They succeeded in keeping for themselves the direct profits of the first American production of The Pirates of Penzance by opening the production themselves on Broadway, prior to the London production, and they also operated profitable US touring companies of Pirates and Pinafore . However, Gilbert, Sullivan, and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte , failed in their efforts, over

7571-431: The first recognized stage director in America. He exercised fierce and tyrannical control over all aspects of his productions. His rules of conduct for actors and actresses imposed heavy fines for late appearances and forgotten lines and earned him the title "the autocrat of the stage." He formed a permanent company in New York and opened Daly's Theatre in New York in 1879, and a second one in London in 1893. Augustin Daly

7684-415: The foeman bares his steel" and the soaring line for the women, "Go, ye heroes, go to glory". In adapting the four-part chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" from Thespis for re-use in Pirates , Sullivan took less trouble: he wrote only a single vocal line, suitable for soprano voices. Despite this, the number ends with another example of Sullivan's counterpoint, with the chorus singing the second melody of

7797-493: The former Bijou Theatre). New York has seen over forty major revivals since the premiere. One of these, produced and directed by Winthrop Ames in 1926 at the Plymouth Theatre , ran for 128 performances and gained good notices. A brief 1952 Broadway staging starring Martyn Green , earned Lehman Engel a Tony Award as conductor. Repertory companies that have mounted Pirates numerous times Off-Broadway and on tour in

7910-403: The girls attempt to console him ("Oh dry the glist'ning tear"). The Sergeant of Police and his corps arrive to announce their readiness to arrest the pirates ("When the foeman bares his steel"). The girls loudly express their admiration of the police for facing likely slaughter by fierce and merciless foes. The police are unnerved by this and leave reluctantly. Left alone, Frederic, who is to lead

8023-497: The history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime (excluding tours): 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: In 1980, Joseph Papp and the Public Theater of New York City produced a new version of Pirates , directed by Wilford Leach and choreographed by Graciela Daniele , at

8136-464: The hit London musical A Runaway Girl , with music by Ivan Caryll and Lionel Monckton . 1899 saw a John Philip Sousa musical, The Charlatan , and the comic play Becky Sharp by Langdon Mitchell . The theatre began the new century with three Shakespeare plays, Macbeth , Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing . Other productions in 1900 were Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller and Oliver Goldsmith by Augustus Thomas . After this,

8249-513: The main auditorium. When Augustin Daly 's former Fifth Avenue Theatre (on 24th Street) burned down in 1873, Daly moved his company to the St. James, remodeled it and renamed it the New Fifth Avenue Theatre , where he continued as proprietor until 1877. The 1873 financial panic hurt business at the theatre in Daly's early years, but his 1875 production of The Big Bonanza was a big success, as

8362-428: The matinee, where they read their parts from scripts carried onto the stage, making do with whatever costumes they had on hand. Pirates premiered on 31 December 1879 in New York and was an immediate hit. On 2 January 1880, Sullivan wrote, in another letter to his mother from New York, "The libretto is ingenious, clever, wonderfully funny in parts, and sometimes brilliant in dialogue – beautifully written for music, as

8475-419: The meantime, Gilbert and Sullivan raced to complete and rehearse The Pirates of Penzance . The work's title is a multi-layered joke. On the one hand, Penzance was a docile seaside resort in 1879, 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. To secure

8588-449: The most popular G&S works. The London sets were designed by John O'Connor . The critics' notices were generally excellent in both New York and London. The character of Major-General Stanley was widely taken to be a caricature of the popular general Sir Garnet Wolseley . The biographer Michael Ainger, however, doubts that Gilbert intended a caricature of Wolseley, identifying instead General Henry Turner, uncle of Gilbert's wife, as

8701-412: The music rehearsals. Sullivan had sketched out the music for Pirates in England. When he arrived in New York, however, he found that he had left the sketches for Act I behind, and he had to reconstruct the first act from memory, or compose new numbers. 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

8814-554: The new Victorian Arts Centre , directed by John Feraro. It starred Jon English as the Pirate King, Simon Gallaher as Frederic, June Bronhill as Ruth, David Atkins as the Sergeant and Marina Prior as Mabel. The six-week limited season was followed by an Australian national tour from 1984 to 1986 and another tour with same cast in the mid-1990s. In 1985, Papp's Pirates opened the new Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. Gallaher's Essgee Entertainment version of Pirates

8927-452: The next decade, to control the American performance copyrights to Pirates and their other operas. Fiction and plays about pirates were ubiquitous in the 19th century. Walter Scott 's The Pirate (1822) and James Fenimore Cooper 's The Red Rover were key sources for the romanticised, dashing pirate image and the idea of repentant pirates. Both Gilbert and Sullivan had parodied these ideas early in their careers. Sullivan had written

9040-800: The opera and inspired by the success of the Papp version, The Pirate Movie , was released during the Broadway run. [Papp's version] has been regularly revived on both sides of the Atlantic – a British revival in 2000 transferred from the West Yorkshire Playhouse , Leeds , to the Open Air Theatre in Regents' Park – and has also become well established in the repertoire of amateur student societies. No other production has had as much lasting impact or influence. ... It also helped to promote G&S in places where it has been little performed and bring it to

9153-407: The pain was great, and exclaiming, over and over again, 'I've got it! I've got it! And it beats hot-irons all to pieces!" I wasn't even thinking of the hurt. I had the thought of having my hero tied on a railroad track and rescued by his sweetheart, just in the nick of time, before the swift passage of an express train across a dark stage. A Flash of Lightning (1868), like Under the Gaslight ,

9266-492: The particular abilities of these performers. The skill with which Gilbert and Sullivan used their performers had an effect on the audience: as critic Herman Klein wrote, "we secretly marvelled at the naturalness and ease with which [the Gilbertian quips and absurdities] were said and done. For until then no living soul had seen upon the stage such weird, eccentric, yet intensely human beings .... [They] conjured into existence

9379-439: The pattern for the "modern Major-General". Gilbert disliked Turner, who, unlike the progressive Wolseley, was of the old school of officers. Nevertheless, in the original London production, George Grossmith imitated Wolseley's mannerisms and appearance, particularly his large moustache, and the audience recognised the allusion. Wolseley himself, according to his biographer, took no offence at the caricature and sometimes sang "I am

9492-407: The pattern of most Savoy opera overtures: a lively opening (the melody of "With cat-like tread"), a slow middle section ("Ah, leave me not to pine alone"), and a concluding allegro in a compressed sonata form , in which the themes of "How beautifully blue the sky" and "A paradox, a paradox" are combined. The score parodies several composers, most conspicuously Verdi . "Come, friends, who plough

9605-442: The piece ("Let us gaily tread the measure") while the orchestra plays the first ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Sullivan set a particular vocal challenge for the soprano who portrays Mabel. The Sullivan scholar Gervase Hughes wrote, "Mabel ... must be a coloratura because of 'Poor wand'ring one!', yet 'Dear father, why leave your bed' demands steady beauty of tone throughout the octave F to F, and 'Ah, leave me not to pine' goes

9718-465: The pirate sherry". In the original New York production 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 ): In the original London production, this exchange was shortened to the following: Gilbert deleted the exchange in the 1900 revival, and the Chappell vocal score was revised accordingly. For

9831-457: The pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong". The Major-General is impressed by this and all is forgiven. Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble ex-pirates after all ("Poor Wand'ring Ones" (reprise)). Act I Act II The notices from critics were generally excellent in both New York and London in 1880. In New York, the Herald and

9944-442: The pirates arrive and capture the girls, intending to marry them ("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 "). He appeals to the pirates not to take his daughters, leaving him to face his old age alone. Having heard of the famous Pirates of Penzance, he pretends that he

10057-422: The pirates until his 21st birthday – in 1940. They agree to be faithful to each other until then, though to Mabel "It seems so long" ("Oh, here is love, and here is truth"); Frederic departs. Mabel steels herself ("No, I'll be brave") and tells the police that they must go alone to face the pirates. The police muse that an outlaw might be just like any other man, and it is a shame to deprive him of "that liberty which

10170-464: The plays remain somewhat melodramatic. The Pirates of Penzance The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert . Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where it was well received by both audiences and critics. Its London debut

10283-510: The police, reflects on his opportunity to atone for a life of piracy ("Now for the pirates' lair"), at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. They have realised that Frederic's apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on 29 February (in a leap year ), it 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 he

10396-404: The requirements of Mr. Gilbert like Mr. Sullivan, and vice versa , is a fact universally admitted. One might fancy that verse and music were of simultaneous growth, so closely and firmly are they interwoven. Away from this consideration, the score of The Pirates of Penzance is one upon which Mr. Sullivan must have bestowed earnest consideration, for independently of its constant flow of melody, it

10509-531: The sea" and "You triumph now" are burlesques of Il trovatore , and one of the best-known choral passages from the finale to Act I, "Hail Poetry", is, according to the Sullivan scholar, Arthur Jacobs , a burlesque of the prayer scene, "La Vergine degli Angeli", in Verdi's La forza del destino . However, another musicologist, Nicholas Temperley, writes, "The choral outburst 'Hail, Poetry' in The Pirates of Penzance would need very little alteration to turn it into

10622-439: The secluded spot ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Frederic reveals himself ("Stop, ladies, pray!"), startling them. He appeals to them to help him reform ("Oh! is there not one maiden breast?"). The girls are fascinated by him, but all reject him, except one: Mabel responds to his plea, chiding her sisters for their lack of charity ("Oh sisters deaf to pity's name for shame!"). She offers Frederic her pity ("Poor wand'ring one"), and

10735-498: The soothing breeze ("Sighing softly to the river"). The girls come looking for him. The pirates leap out to seize them, and the Pirate King urges the captured Major-General to prepare for death. The police rush to their defence but are easily defeated. The Sergeant has one stratagem left: he demands that the pirates yield "in Queen Victoria 's name"; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so. Ruth appears and reveals that

10848-402: The summer of 1879 and made arrangements with theatre manager John T. Ford to present, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre , the authorised productions. He then returned to London. Meanwhile, once Pinafore became a hit in London, the author, composer and producer had the financial resources to produce future shows themselves, and they executed a plan to free themselves from their financial backers in

10961-533: The theatre presented mostly vaudeville , but it still produced a few plays and musicals. In 1903, for example, the theatre presented Who Is Brown? by Frank Wyatt . 1905 productions included Zorah by Edwin Arden and a version of Oliver Twist by J. Comyns Carr . Another hit London musical, King of Cadonia , with music by Sidney Jones , played at the theatre in 1910. The theatre began to show films during World War I . In later years, few plays were produced at

11074-621: The theatre. They included The Wisecrackers by Gilbert Seldes (1925) and Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl by Charles Foster (1935). Notes Sources 40°44′43″N 73°59′22″W  /  40.7454°N 73.9894°W  / 40.7454; -73.9894 Augustin Daly John Augustin Daly (July 20, 1838 – June 7, 1899) was one of the most influential men in American theatre during his lifetime. Drama critic, theatre manager, playwright, and adapter, he became

11187-408: The theatrical newspaper The Era , was that the new work marked a distinct advance on Gilbert and Sullivan's earlier works. The Pall Mall Gazette said, "Of Mr. Sullivan's music we must speak in detail on some other occasion. Suffice it for the present to say that in the new style which he has marked out for himself it is the best he has written." The Graphic wrote: That no composer can meet

11300-400: The two quickly fall in love. The other girls discuss whether to eavesdrop or to leave the new couple alone ("What ought we to do?"), deciding to "talk about the weather," although they steal glances at the affectionate couple ("How beautifully blue the sky"). Frederic warns the young ladies that his old associates will soon return ("Stay, we must not lose our senses"), but before they can flee,

11413-433: The unpublished Thespis score to New York, when there were no plans to revive Thespis , might not have been accidental. In any case, on 10 December 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." As was his usual practice in his operas, Sullivan left

11526-428: The very model of a modern Major-General" for the private amusement of his family and friends. On the coast of Cornwall , during Queen Victoria 's reign, Frederic celebrates the completion of his twenty-first year and the end of his apprenticeship to a gentlemanly band of pirates ("Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry"). The pirates' maid of all work, Ruth, appears and reveals that, as Frederic's nursemaid long ago, she made

11639-523: Was a West End production at the Savoy Theatre, and the Chicago Lyric Opera and English National Opera each also staged the work. From 2006 to 2007 an Opera Australia production toured Australia starring Anthony Warlow as the Pirate King, and in 2007 New York City Opera mounted a new production. In 2013, Scottish Opera produced a British touring production co-produced by the trustees of

11752-541: Was a flop. His production of W. S. Gilbert 's play Charity the same year, however, was a success, although the playwright objected to Daly's changes. The next year, Daly's own play The Big Bonanza was a sensation, introducing John Drew in his New York début. Also in 1875 came the New York premiere of the hit London play Our Boys by H. J. Byron , in which Georgiana Drew first appeared in New York. The first night of Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's The School for Scandal on December 5, 1876, with Charles Coghlan ,

11865-668: Was a strong believer in presenting Shakespeare's plays uncut.) Several of Shaw's criticisms of Daly's Shakespeare productions were reprinted in the anthology Shaw on Shakespeare . In 1894, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame , considered the most prestigious award for American Catholics . Daly was a great book-lover, and his valuable library was dispersed by auction after his death, which occurred in Paris . Besides plays, original and adapted, he wrote Woffington :

11978-635: Was born in Plymouth, North Carolina to Captain Denis Daly, sea-captain and ship owner, and Elizabeth, daughter of Lieutenant John Duffy of the British Army. He was educated in Norfolk, Virginia , and in the public schools of New York City. His mother, early left a widow, brought her two boys to New York City, where they soon became frequent attendants at the theaters and were members of amateur groups under such names as

12091-539: Was his production of Lemons . Mary Anderson and Helena Modjeska made their New York debuts at the theatre. Eleonora Duse also made her American debut at the theatre in 1893 in The Lady of the Camellias . In 1877, a ventilation system was introduced at the theatre that blew air over blocks of ice, making it the world's first air-conditioned theatre. John T. Ford managed the theatre for some years thereafter, naming it

12204-572: Was inspired by the Papp version. The Papp version also inspired foreign-language productions in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The Papp production was turned into a film in 1983 , with the original Broadway principal cast reprising their roles, except that Angela Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth. The minor roles used British actors miming to their Broadway counterparts. The film has been shown occasionally on television. Another film based loosely on

12317-443: Was on 3 April 1880, at the Opera Comique , where it ran for 363 performances. The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets the daughters of the incompetent Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on 29 February, and so, technically, he has

12430-414: Was overshadowed by the disastrous Brooklyn Theater Fire . In 1877, another huge London hit, The Chimes of Normandy , had its New York premiere at the theatre. Daly was losing money at the theatre and left by 1878 to take over another New York theatre, which had been Banvard's Museum, naming it Daly's Theatre. The Fifth Avenue Theatre was soon leased to John T. Ford , who presented, in cooperation with

12543-430: Was showing motion pictures. The theatre presented burlesque in the 1930s and, in its declining years, films. It was demolished in 1939. Among the theatre's early successes was Jezebel , a play by Dion Boucicault in 1871. One of Daly's first productions at the theatre was another Boucicault play, The Heart of Mid-Lothian , and another was the New York premiere of Shakespeare 's Love's Labour's Lost in 1874, which

12656-672: Was still no international copyright law in 1880, and the first unauthorised New York production was given by the Boston Ideal Opera Company at Booth's Theatre in September of that year. The opera premiered in a German translation by Richard Genée and Camillo Walzel ( Die Piraten ) in Austria at the Theater an der Wien on 1 March 1889, and in Düsseldorf , Germany, on 1 December 1936. The first non-D'Oyly Carte professional production in

12769-427: Was walking home toward night, thinking intently about the play which he had begun to write, when suddenly the crowning expedient occurred to him and at the same instant he stumbled over a misplaced flagstone, striking his right foot against the edge of the stone and sustaining a severe hurt. "I was near my door," he said, "and I rushed into the house, threw myself into a chair, grasping my injured foot with both hands, for

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