Poster c. 1920

After the sensational success of H.M.S. Pinafore, many American performing companies presented unauthorized versions of that opera. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte decided to prevent that from happening again by presenting official versions of their next opera, The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty simultaneously in England and America. The opera premiered on December 31, 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with Sullivan conducting, but a single performance had been given on the previous day at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, England, to secure the British copyright. Finally, the opera opened on April 3, 1880, at the Opéra Comique in London, where it ran for 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for over three months in New York.

On December 10, 1879, Sullivan had written 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." True enough! The Pirates of Penzance was an immediate hit and takes its place today as one of the most popular and enduring works of musical theatre.

In The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic was as a child apprenticed to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse who, being hard of hearing, had mistaken her master's instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. Frederic, upon completing his 21st year, rejoices that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to respectable society. But it turns out that he was born on February 29 in leap year, and he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday. By the end of the opera, the pirates, a Major General who knows nothing of military strategy, his large family of beautiful but unwed daugters, and the timid constabulary all contribute to a cacophony that can be silenced only by Queen Victoria's name.

• Libretto: Text [55KB], Zipped Word [39KB] or PDF [146KB] versions.
• An Analytical Edition of the Libretto prepared by Ian Bond. Colour coding is used to identify material from three different editions of the libretto. Available as a zipped Word Document [52KB] or in PDF Format [310KB]. See also a critical commentary on this libretto by Marc Shepherd.
• Palmtop Libretto: A version of the libretto formatted for use with palmtop computers is available from the Palm Pirates web site.
• Libretto, illustrated by Russell Flint in "Savoy Operas" [from the Internet Archive]
• Glossaries
  • From the book Titwillow by Guy and Claude Walmisley
  • The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive Glossary,

PROMPT BOOKS

• Two D'Oyly Carte prompt books for early productions have been digitised and can be downloaded as PDF files:
  1. In copy book with green paper covers [5.15MB],
  2. With black leather cover [ 4.30MB]

• Discography: Marc Shepherd's The Pirates of Penzance Discography
• Internet Archive: A nineteenth century edition of the Vocal Score published in the U.S. by Stoddart can be downloaded in a variety of formats.
• IMSLP: Vocal score [J. M. Stoddart, 1880], overture, pot-pourri (both arranged for four hands) may be downloaded as PDF files.
• Scores: Other sources of The Pirates of Penzance Scores
• Schirmer Piano/Vocal Score Errata List
• RealAudio Files: Pirates RealAudio Home Page
• Musical Solutions — G&S MIDI Rehearsal Files — David Cookson's site includes MIDI rehearsal files for all the G&S Operas, plus Cox and Box and Haddon Hall.

RECORDING

• 1929 HMV D'Oyly Carte Recording [from the Internet Archive]

Buy a recording: D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Isidore Godfrey (1949) You can hear samples and buy individual tracks or the whole opera in MP3 format.

Richard Temple as Pirate King in the first production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Opéra Comique, London. Engraving by M Stretch from The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, June 26th 1880

EARLY PERFORMANCES First Night Casts Reviews: Review of the first night of the original London production from The Times, 1880. Cast changes during the original run reported in The Times, 1881. Review of the first London revival, 1888, from The Times. Review of the second London revival, 1900, from The Times. Review of the third London revival, 1908, from The Times. Other reviews from the Savoy Opera Review site. ILLUSTRATIONS D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Productions Eight watercolours by W. Russell Flint. Some of these have also been made into jig-saw puzzles which you can solve on your computer. 'Bab' drawings illustrating The Pirates of Penzance.Gilbert's own drawings from Songs of a Savoyard. Clip Art: An illustrated catalogue of copyright free clip art of scenes from the Opera. (Page made up of 65K of files) Photographs of the plaque on the building which now stands on the site of the hotel in New York where Sullivan composed most of The Pirates of Penzance.

ADAPTATIONS

• Di Yam Gazlonim is Al Grand's Yiddish adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance. The New York based Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre’s production received a 2007 NY Drama Desk nomination in the Outstanding Revival of a Musical category. 
• Parodies: The Gilbert and Sullivan Parody Archive contains a few dozen parodies on "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General", a few on "When a Felon's Not Engaged", and one on "When Frederic was a Little Lad.