Fall 1986: Pirates of Penzance

 

Libretto by W. S. Gilbert
Music by Arthur Sullivan

The Pirates of Penzance opens at the end of Frederic's apprenticeship. When Frederic was yet a little boy, his nurse (Ruth) was told to apprentice him to become a pilot. She heard the word incorrectly and apprenticed him to a band of pirates, remaining with them herself as a maid-of-all-work. He escapes Ruth's amorous clutches, upon seeing some beautiful girls and learning that she isn't as beautiful as she claims she is. He takes up with Mabel, a ward of the Major-General. Her fellow wards are seized by the pirates and threatened with immediate marriage. They escape with the aid of a sob story concocted by the Major-General. He broods over the lie at night in a Gothic ruin, consoled by his wards' sympathy and Frederic's plan of revenge against the pirates. Meanwhile, the Pirate King and Ruth have discovered that his indentures were to run until his twenty-first birthday. Since he was born on February 29, he has really had only five birthdays. Due to a strong sense of duty, he rejoins the pirates. He tells them of the Major-General's doings, and they proceed to exact their revenge. The police come to the rescue and the pirates yield. Ruth defends the pirates as "noblemen who have gone wrong", and they are pardoned and permitted to marry the Major-General's wards.