Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Video by Ryan Malyar
artsforthemasses.com
Produced for Greater Boston Stage Company
greaterbostonstage.org
Video by Ryan Malyar
artsforthemasses.com
Produced for Greater Boston Stage Company
greaterbostonstage.org










![The Pirates of Penzance - Full Show
The Pirates of Penzance
The original (classic) album by DOyly Carte Opera: https://amzn.to/3XAzyxV
The 1983 DVD of Pirates with Kevin Cline and Angela Lansbury: https://amzn.to/3lsH7sT
Presented November 8, 2021 by Valley Light Opera
Massachusetts
Pirates of Penzance is in the Public Domain
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. The operas 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.[1] Its London debut 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 Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on the 29th of February, and so, technically, he has 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.[2] Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederics only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.
Pirates was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied Major-Generals Song. The opera was performed for over a century by the DOyly Carte Opera Company in Britain and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions include Joseph Papps 1981 Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning 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 - Full Show](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uaem0R05xbU/mqdefault.jpg)