It has been said that when William Gilbert was just 2 years old, he was kidnapped by Italian bandits. His parents were on holiday in Naples when a couple of men approached the maid looking after the baby and demanded the child. His parents were able to win back their son by paying the ransom. Whether this is true or not, it had a profound effect on Gilbert’s story-telling – he created Ruth, the foolish nursery-maid from The Pirates of Penzance. [1]
The Pirates of Penzance is a comic operetta, with words by W.S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. It is the story of a young man, Frederic, who is turning 21.
The story concerns Frederic, who was apprenticed to a group of kind-hearted pirates by his nurse as a small child. The nurse, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master’s instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Upon reaching what he believes to be his 21st year, Frederic celebrates the completion of his apprenticeship and looks forward to rejoining respectable society. However, a twist unfolds as it is revealed that he was born on 29 February during a leap year, and he must remain apprenticed to the pirates until his true 21st birthday.
The Pirates of Penzance was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration. 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 was on 3 April 1880, at the Opera Comique, where it ran for 363 performances. It still entertains audiences today.
Gilbert’s creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, and numerous short stories, poems, and lyrics, both comic and serious. Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated on 14 comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Pirates of Penzance are among the best known.
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