Pirates of Penzance 2006

Produced, Directed and Choreographed

by
Ian
Clark

Musical
Director
Dennis
Mason

Dramatis
Personae

Chorus of
Pirates

Nigel Cox, John
Dalby, Mark Donalds, Chris Healey,
Richard Smith, John Westbrook, Brian Youngman
plus Nadine Darnley, Sue Moore & Pat White (in
Act II)

Chorus of Police

John Dalby, Mark
Donalds, Chris Healey,
John Westbrook, Brian Youngman

Major-General
Stanley’s Wards

Kym Chalker,
Stephanie Clark, Christine Cox,
Nadine Darnley, Celia Delicate, Shirley Howells,
Nadege Lindsay, Sue Moore, Val Sykes

About the
operetta

The Pirates of
Penzance
(or The Slave of Duty) is a comic
opera in two acts, with music by Sir Arthur
Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The
opera’s official premiere was at the Fifth
Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December
1879, where the show was well received by both
audiences and critics. Its London debut was on 3
April 1880, at the Opera Comique, where it ran
for a very successful 363 performances, having
already been playing successfully for over three
months in New York.

The story concerns Frederic, who, having
completed his 21st year, is released from his
apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted
pirates. He meets Mabel, the daughter of
Major-General Stanley, and the two young people
fall instantly in love.

Frederic finds out, however, that he was born on
29 February, and so, technically, he only has a
birthday each leap year.

His apprenticeship indentures state that he
remains apprenticed to the pirates until his
21st birthday, and so he must serve for another
63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty,
Frederic’s only solace is that Mabel agrees to
wait for him faithfully.

The Pirates of Penzance was the fifth Gilbert
and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the
much-parodied Major-General’s Song. The opera
was performed for a century by the D’Oyly Carte
Opera Company in Britain and many other opera
companies and repertory companies worldwide.