An indenture is a legal contract that reflects an agreement between two parties. Although the term is most familiarly used to refer to a labor contract between an employer and a laborer with an indentured servant status, historically indentures were used for a variety of contracts, including transfers and rents of land and even peace agreements between rulers.
100-684: Pirate King may refer to: Fictional characters [ edit ] The Pirate King, a character in The Pirates of Penzance Gol D. Roger , a character known as Pirate King in the world of One Piece . Elizabeth Swann , a character from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Hondo Ohnaka , a character from the Star Wars franchise. Music [ edit ] "The Pirate King",
200-541: A Mozart string quartet." Another well-known parody number from the work is the song for coloratura , "Poor wand'ring one", which is generally thought to burlesque Gounod 's waltz-songs, though the music critic of The Times called it "mock- Donizetti ". In a scene in Act ;II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of an Anglican church service. Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The critic Rodney Milnes describes
300-405: 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. Bound by his own sense of duty to honour his bond with the pirates, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. The pirates' maid-of-all-work, Ruth, eventually reveals a fact that saves
400-527: A comic opera, The Contrabandista , in 1867, about a hapless British tourist who is captured by bandits and forced to become their chief. Gilbert had written several comic works that involved pirates or bandits. In Gilbert's 1876 opera Princess Toto , the title character is eager to be captured by a brigand chief. Gilbert had translated Jacques Offenbach 's operetta Les brigands , in 1871. As in Les brigands , The Pirates of Penzance absurdly treats stealing as
500-912: A company of singing actors, to play both Pinafore and the new opera, including J. H. Ryley as Sir Joseph, Blanche Roosevelt as Josephine, Alice Barnett as Little Buttercup, Furneaux Cook as Dick Deadeye, Hugh Talbot as Ralph Rackstraw and Jessie Bond as Cousin Hebe, some of whom had been in the Pinafore cast in London. To these, he added some American singers, including Signor Brocolini as Captain Corcoran. Alfred Cellier came to assist Sullivan, while his brother François Cellier remained in London to conduct Pinafore there. Gilbert and Sullivan cast talented actors who were not well-known stars and did not command high fees. They then tailored their operas to
600-764: A country that had been subject to Gilbert's copyright (other than Williamsons' authorised productions) was in Stratford, Ontario , Canada, in September 1961, as the copyright expired. In 1979, the Torbay branch of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society presented a centenary tribute to the world premiere performance of Pirates in Paignton, with a production at the Palace Avenue Theatre (situated a few metres from
700-421: A fair, orderly manner if default takes place (like that which occurs during bankruptcy ). No trust relationship exists between the bondholder and the issuing corporation. These two are in a regular contractual, arm's length , non- fiduciary , non- equity relationship. Rather, the trustee in a "trust indenture" is a third party, usually a specialist company, who is appointed by the issuer to handle and safeguard
800-512: A felon's not engaged in his employment", adding, "There could never be any doubt as to who wrote that , and it is as English as our wonderful police themselves." Because the work was premiered in three different places (the Paignton performance and the full productions in New York and London), there are more variations in the early libretto and score of The Pirates of Penzance than in other Gilbert and Sullivan works. Songs sent from New York to
900-419: A few dissenting comments: The Manchester Guardian thought both author and composer had drawn on the works of their predecessors: "Mr. Gilbert ... seems to have borrowed an idea from Sheridan 's The Critic ; Mr. Sullivan's music is sprightly, tuneful and full of 'go', although it is certainly lacking in originality." The Sporting Times noted, "It doesn't appear to have struck any of the critics yet that
1000-527: A great favourite in Sullivan's formative years, may have been the model for Sullivan's trademark contrapuntal mingling of the rapid prattle of the women's chorus in Act I ("How beautifully blue the sky") in 2/4 time with the lovers' duet in waltz time. Jacobs writes that "the whole number [shifts] with Schubertian ease from B to G and back again." In Act II, a double chorus combines the policemen's dogged tune, "When
1100-506: A group of thugs to the Opera Comique to seize the scenery and props during the evening performance of Pinafore . See Ainger, p. 170 and Jacobs, pp. 124–125. Stagehands and cast members managed to ward off their backstage attackers and protect the scenery. The police arrived to restore order, and the show continued. See Stedman, pp. 170–171 and Gillan, Don. "The Fracas at the Opera Comique" , The Theatre , 1 September 1879, reprinted at
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#17327723832911200-441: A hitherto unknown comic world of sheer delight." Gilbert acted as stage director for his own plays and operas. He sought naturalism in acting, which was unusual at the time, just as he strove for realistic visual elements. He deprecated self-conscious interaction with the audience and insisted on a style of portrayal in which the characters were never aware of their own absurdity but were coherent internal wholes. Sullivan conducted
1300-510: A lugubrious comic number for the Sergeant of Police ... a song of confession for Ruth, the successor [to] Little Buttercup", romantic material for Frederic and Mabel, and "ensemble and chorus music in turn pretty, parodic and atmospheric." Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte met by 24 April 1879 to make plans for a production of Pinafore and the new opera in America. Carte travelled to New York in
1400-439: A mistake "through being hard of hearing": Mishearing Frederic's father's instructions, she apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship's pilot ("When Frederic was a little lad"). Frederic has never seen any woman other than Ruth, and he believes her to be beautiful. The pirates know better and suggest that Frederic take Ruth with him when he returns to civilisation. Frederic announces that, although it pains him, so strong
1500-646: A music critic, praised "the time-honored lilt which Sir Arthur Sullivan, following the example of Mozart and Rossini , chose for the lists of accomplishments of the Major-General in The Pirates or the Colonel in Patience ." This opera contains two well-known examples of Sullivan's characteristic combination of two seemingly disparate melodies. Jacobs suggests that Berlioz 's La damnation de Faust ,
1600-423: A new orchestration and arrangements that changed keys, added repeats, lengthened dance music and made other minor changes in the score. The "Matter Patter" trio from Ruddigore and "Sorry her lot" from H.M.S. Pinafore , two other Gilbert and Sullivan operas, were interpolated into the show. The production also restored Gilbert and Sullivan's original New York ending, with a reprise of the Major-General's song in
1700-475: A period of indentured labour in order to pay the cost of their transportation. This practice was common during the 17th and 18th centuries, where over half of immigrants worked off an average of three years' servitude. Bond indenture (also trust indenture or deed of trust ) is a legal document issued to lenders and describes key terms such as the interest rate , maturity date , convertibility , pledge, promises, representations, covenants, and other terms of
1800-541: A pirate "chief", Captain Bang. Bang was mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate band as a child by his deaf nursemaid. Also, Bang, like Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance , had never seen a woman before and felt a keen sense of duty, as an apprenticed pirate, until the passage of his 21st birthday freed him from his articles of indenture. Bernard Shaw believed that Gilbert drew on ideas in Les brigands for his new libretto, including
1900-522: A professional career path, with apprentices and tools of the trade such as the crowbar and life preserver . While Pinafore was running strongly at the Opera Comique in London, Gilbert was eager to get started on his and Sullivan's next opera, and he began working on the libretto in December 1878. He re-used several elements of his 1870 one-act piece, Our Island Home , which had introduced
2000-608: A song from The Pirates of Penzance and Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Songs "Pirate King", a song by the K-pop group ATEEZ from their 2018 album Treasure EP.1: All to Zero Other [ edit ] Pirate King (boardgame) , a strategy boardgame Pirate King (novel) , a 2011 novel by Laurie R. King The Pirate King , a 2008 novel by R. A. Salvatore See also [ edit ] King of Pirates Online,
2100-400: A third lower still." In The Music of Arthur Sullivan (1959), Hughes quoted four extracts from Pirates , saying that if hearing each out of context one might attribute it to Schubert, Mendelssohn , Gounod or Bizet respectively, "yet on learning the truth one would kick oneself for not having recognised Sullivan's touch in all four." Hughes concluded by quoting the introductory bars of "When
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#17327723832912200-478: Is a legal contract between two parties, whether for indentured labour or a term of apprenticeship or for certain land transactions. The term comes from the medieval English "indenture of retainer" —a legal contract written in duplicate on the same sheet, with the copies separated by cutting along a jagged (toothed, hence the term "indenture") line so that the teeth of the two parts could later be refitted to confirm authenticity ( chirograph ). Each party to
2300-607: Is all Gilbert does. ... The music is infinitely superior in every way to the Pinafore – 'tunier' and more developed, of a higher class altogether. I think that in time it will be very popular." Shortly thereafter, Carte sent three touring companies around the United States East Coast and Midwest, playing Pirates and Pinafore . Sullivan's prediction was correct. After a strong run in New York and several American tours, Pirates opened in London on 3 April 1880, running for 363 performances there. It remains one of
2400-404: Is an orphan to elicit their sympathy ("Oh, men of dark and dismal fate"). The soft-hearted pirates release the girls ("Hail, Poetry!"), making Major-General Stanley and his daughters honorary members of their band ("Pray observe the magnanimity"). The Major-General sits in a ruined chapel on his estate, surrounded by his daughters. His conscience is tortured by the lie that he told the pirates, and
2500-598: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Pirates of Penzance 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 . 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
2600-429: Is fresh, bright, elegant and merry, and much of it belongs to a higher order of art than the most popular of the tunes of Pinafore ." The New York Times also praised the work, writing, "it would be impossible for a confirmed misanthrope to refrain from merriment over it", though the paper doubted if Pirates could repeat the prodigious success of Pinafore . After the London premiere, the critical consensus, led by
2700-481: Is his sense of duty that, once free from his apprenticeship, he will be forced to devote himself to the pirates' extermination. He also points out that they are not successful pirates: since they are all orphans, they allow their prey to go free if they too are orphans. Frederic notes that word of this has got about, so captured ships' companies routinely claim to be orphans. Frederic invites the pirates to give up piracy and go with him, so that he need not destroy them, but
2800-492: Is in his eighties. Frederic is convinced by this logic and agrees to rejoin the pirates. He then sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General's deception. The outraged outlaw declares that the pirates' "revenge will be swift and terrible" ("Away, away, my heart's on fire"). Frederic meets Mabel ("All is prepared"), and she pleads with him to stay ("Stay Frederic, stay"), but he feels bound by his duty to
2900-477: Is over....' Now will you please let me have them, and the parts of Thespis also at once. I am detaining the parts of Pinafore , so that the directors shall not take them away from the Comique tomorrow, and I base my claim on the precedent you set." See Rees, p. 89. The Comedy Opera Company directors engaged another theatre to play a rival production of Pinafore , but they had no scenery. On 31 July, they sent
3000-507: Is set to direct, with choreography by Warren Carlyle . Roundabout Theatre Company is producing. Designs are by David Rockwell (sets), Linda Cho (costumes), Donald Holder (lighting) and Mikaal Sulaiman (sound). A concert of this concept was staged in October 2022 by, and for the benefit of, Roundabout, at the same theatre, with the same creative team, starring Pierce and Karimloo, with Colton Ryan as Frederic. The following table shows
3100-427: Is so dear to all" ("When a felon's not engaged in his employment"). The police hide on hearing the approach of the pirates ("A rollicking band of pirates we"), who have stolen onto the estate, intending to take revenge for the Major-General's lie ("With cat-like tread"). Just then, Major-General Stanley appears, sleepless with guilt, and the pirates also hide ("Hush, hush! not a word"), while the Major-General listens to
Pirate King - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-475: Is written throughout for voices and instruments with infinite care, and the issue is a cabinet miniature of exquisitely defined proportions. ... That the Pirates is a clear advance upon its precursors, from Trial by Jury to H.M.S. Pinafore , cannot be denied; it contains more variety, marked character, careful workmanship, and is in fact a more finished artistic achievement … a brilliant success. There were
3300-613: The Tribune both dedicated considerable space to their reviews. The Herald took the view that "the new work is in every respect superior to the Pinafore , the text more humorous, the music more elegant and more elaborate." The Tribune called it "a brilliant and complete success", commenting, "The humor of the Pirates is richer, but more recondite. It demands a closer attention to the words [but] there are great stores of wit and drollery ... which will well repay exploration. ... The music
3400-761: The Delacorte Theatre in Central Park , as a Shakespeare in the Park summer event. Musical direction and arrangements were by William Elliott. The show played for 10 previews and 35 performances. It then transferred to Broadway, opening on 8 January 1981 for a run of 20 previews and 787 regular performances at the Uris and Minskoff Theatres, the longest run of any Gilbert and Sullivan production in history. This take on Pirates earned enthusiastic reviews and seven Tony Award nominations, winning three, including
3500-537: 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 was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to have its official premiere in
3600-407: The overture for the last moment, often sketching it out and entrusting completion of "the details" to an assistant, in this case the company's music director, Alfred Cellier. Pinafore opened in New York on 1 December 1879 and ran for the rest of December. After a reasonably strong first week, audiences quickly fell off, since most New Yorkers had already seen local productions of Pinafore . In
3700-587: The "Comedy Opera Company". Carte formed a new partnership with Gilbert and Sullivan to divide profits equally among themselves after the expenses of each of their shows. Sullivan wrote to a former producer, John Hollingshead of the Gaiety Theatre , saying: "You once settled a precedent for me which may just at present be of great importance to me. I asked you for the band parts of the Merry Wives of Windsor ... and [you] said, 'They are yours, as our run
3800-471: The 1908 revival Gilbert had the pirates yielding "in good King Edward's name". Despite Helen Carte 's repeated urging, Gilbert did not prepare an authorised version of the libretti of the Savoy operas . In its 1989 production, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company restored one of the original versions of the finale, which finishes with a variation of "I am the very model of a modern major-general", rather than with
3900-591: The Act II finale. Linda Ronstadt starred as Mabel, Rex Smith as Frederic, Kevin Kline as the Pirate King, Patricia Routledge as Ruth (replaced by Estelle Parsons for the Broadway transfer), George Rose as the Major-General, and Tony Azito as the Sergeant of Police. Kline won a Tony Award for his performance. Smith won a Theatre World Award , and Kline and Azito won Drama Desk Awards. Notable replacements during
4000-721: The British copyright , a D'Oyly Carte touring company gave a perfunctory copyright performance of Pirates the afternoon before the New York premiere, at the Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton , Devon, organised by Helen Lenoir , who would later marry Richard D'Oyly Carte. The cast, which was performing Pinafore in the evenings in Torquay , received some of the music for Pirates only two days beforehand. Having had only one rehearsal, they travelled to nearby Paignton for
4100-409: The Broadway run included Karla DeVito , Maureen McGovern and Pam Dawber as Mabel; Robby Benson , Patrick Cassidy and Peter Noone as Frederic; Treat Williams , Gary Sandy , James Belushi and Wally Kurth as the Pirate King; David Garrison as the Sergeant; George S. Irving as the Major-General; and Kaye Ballard as Ruth. The Los Angeles cast of the production featured Barry Bostwick as
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4200-608: The Chinese title of the video game Tales of Pirates All pages with titles containing Pirate King Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Pirate King . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pirate_King&oldid=1223588102 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
4300-560: The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Richard Suart played Major-General Stanley and Nicholas Sharratt played Frederic. A Broadway production titled Pirates! The Penzance Musical is set to run at the Todd Haimes Theatre , with previews from 4 April 2025, and an official opening on 24 April; it is expected to play through 22 June 2025. It is set to star David Hyde Pierce as Gilbert/Major General Stanley; Ramin Karimloo as
4400-471: The D'Oyly Carte touring company in England for the Paignton premiere were then altered or omitted during Broadway rehearsals. Gilbert and Sullivan trimmed the work for the London premiere, and Gilbert made further alterations up to and including the 1908 Savoy revival. For example, early versions depicted the Pirate King as the servant of the pirate band, and the words of the opening chorus were, "Pour, O King,
4500-408: The D'Oyly Carte touring repertory in 1893 and was never again absent until the company's closure in 1982. New costumes were designed by Percy Anderson in 1919 and George Sheringham in 1929 (who also executed a new Act I set). Peter Goffin created a new touring set in 1957. In America, after the New York opening on New Year's Eve, 1879, Richard D'Oyly Carte launched four companies that covered
4600-425: The Major-General's Act II song, "Sighing softly to the river", "as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's hero Schubert ", and Amanda Holden speaks of the song's "Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment", but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi's Il trovatore , with the soloist unaware of a concealed male chorus singing behind him. Writing about patter songs , Shaw, in his capacity as
4700-438: The Pirate King says that, contrasted with respectability, piracy is comparatively honest ("Oh! better far to live and die"). The pirates depart, leaving Frederic and Ruth. Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls approaching the pirate lair, and realises that Ruth misled him about her appearance ("Oh false one! You have deceived me!"). Sending Ruth away, Frederic hides before the girls arrive. The girls burst exuberantly upon
4800-426: The Pirate King, Jinkx Monsoon as Ruth, Nicholas Barasch as Frederic, Samantha Williams as Mabel and Preston Truman Boyd as Sullivan/Sergeant of Police. Rupert Holmes adapted the libretto with a New Orleans setting. New orchestrations with Caribbean and French Quarter influences are by Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters , with Joubert serving as music director; dance arrangements are by John O'Neill. Scott Ellis
4900-485: The Pirate King, Jo Anne Worley as Ruth, Clive Revill as the Major-General, Dawber as Mabel, Paxton Whitehead as the Sergeant, Caroline Peyton as Edith and Andy Gibb as Frederic. The production opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane , London, on 26 May 1982, to generally warm reviews, for a run of 601 performances, earning an Olivier Award nomination as Outstanding Musical and another for Tim Curry as
5000-545: The Pirate King. Among the cast were George Cole and Ronald Fraser as the Major-General; Pamela Stephenson as Mabel; Michael Praed and Peter Noone as Frederic; Curry, Timothy Bentinck , Oliver Tobias and Paul Nicholas as the Pirate King; Chris Langham as the Sergeant; Annie Ross as Ruth; Bonnie Langford as Kate; and Louise Gold as Isabel. The Australian production opened in Melbourne in January 1984, opening
5100-524: The Stage Beauty website, accessed 6 May 2009. See also "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", The Era , 10 August 1879, p. 5 and "The Fracas at the Opera Comique", The Leeds Mercury , 13 August 1879, p. 8. The matter was eventually settled in court, where a judge ruled in Carte's favour about two years later. See Ainger, p. 175</ref> In November 1879, Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte sailed to America with
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#17327723832915200-717: The US have included the American Savoyards (1953–67), the Light Opera of Manhattan (1968–89) and the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players (1976–present). As discussed below, Joseph Papp 's 1980–83 Pirates ran for nearly two years each on Broadway and in the West End , boosting the opera's popularity. Professional and amateur productions of the opera continue with frequency. For example, in 2004, there
5300-627: The United States on tours that lasted through the following summer. Gilbert and Sullivan themselves trained each of the touring companies through January and early February 1880, and each company's first performance – whether it was in Philadelphia, Newark, or Buffalo – was conducted by the composer. In Australia, its first authorised performance was on 19 March 1881 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, produced by J. C. Williamson . There
5400-435: The United States. At the time, American law offered no copyright protection to foreigners. After the pair's previous opera, H.M.S. Pinafore , achieved success in London in 1878, approximately 150 American companies quickly mounted unauthorised productions that often took considerable liberties with the text and paid no royalties to the creators. Gilbert and Sullivan hoped to forestall further "copyright piracy" by mounting
5500-512: The army agreeing to provide specified numbers of men and at what cost, may still be read. An indenture was commonly used as a form of sealed contract or agreement for land and buildings. An example of such a use can be found in the National Archives , where an indenture, from about 1401, recording the transfer of the manor of Pinley , Warwickshire , is held. In the early history of the United States, many European immigrants served
5600-534: The attention of a much wider and younger audience. The Papp production design has been widely imitated in later productions of Pirates , even where traditional orchestration and the standard score are used. Some modern productions are also influenced by the Disney film franchise Pirates of the Caribbean , combining aspects of the Papp production with the Disney design concepts. Not all of these revivals have generated
5700-420: The award for Best Revival and for Leach as director. It was also nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards , winning five, including Outstanding Musical and director. Compared with traditional productions of the opera, Papp's Pirates featured a more swashbuckling Pirate King and Frederic, and a broader, more musical comedy style of singing and humour. It did not significantly change the libretto, but it used
5800-525: The bond offering. When the offering memorandum is prepared in advance of marketing a bond, the indenture will typically be summarised in the "description of notes" section. In the United States, public debt offerings in excess of $ 10 million require the use of an indenture of trust under the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 . The rationale for this is that it is necessary to establish a collective action mechanism under which creditors can collect in
5900-455: The businesslike bandits and the bumbling police. Gilbert and Sullivan also inserted into Act II an idea they first considered for a one-act opera parody in 1876 about burglars meeting police, while their conflict escapes the notice of the oblivious father of a large family of girls. As in Pinafore , "there was a wordful self-descriptive set-piece for Stanley [" The Major-General's Song "], introducing himself much as Sir Joseph Porter had done ...
6000-584: The central idea in The Pirates of Penzance is taken from Our Island Home , which was played by the German Reeds some ten years ago." The Times thought Gilbert's wit outran his dramatic invention, and Sullivan's music for the new work was not quite as good as his score for The Sorcerer , which the Times critic called a masterpiece. The overture to The Pirates of Penzance was composed by Sullivan and his musical assistant Alfred Cellier . It follows
6100-495: The chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" from their earlier opera, Thespis . Sullivan's manuscript for Pirates contains pages removed from a Thespis score, with the vocal parts of this chorus altered from their original arrangement as a four-part chorus. Some scholars (e.g. Tillett and Spencer, 2000) have suggested that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use "Climbing over rocky mountain," and perhaps other parts of Thespis . They argue that Sullivan's having brought
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#17327723832916200-619: The customary reprise of "Poor wand'ring one", but in later revivals, it reverted to the more familiar text. The Pirates of Penzance has been one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular comic operas. After its unique triple opening in 1879–80, it was revived in London at the Savoy Theatre in 1888 and in 1900, and for the Savoy's repertory season of 1908–09. In the British provinces, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company toured it almost continuously from 1880 to 1884, and again in 1888. It re-entered
6300-488: The day. Pirates was the fifth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration and introduced the much-parodied " Major-General's Song ". The opera was performed for over a century by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Britain until the copyrights expired and by many other opera companies and repertory companies worldwide. Modernized productions include Joseph Papp 's 1981 Broadway production, which ran for 787 performances, winning
6400-453: The deed would then retain a part. When the agreement was made before a court of law a tripartite indenture was made, with the third piece kept at the court. The term is used for any kind of deed executed by more than one party, in contrast to a deed poll which is made by one individual. In the case of bonds , the indenture shows the pledge, promises, representations and covenants of the issuing party. Although other evidence indicates that
6500-528: The first production of their next opera in America, before others could copy it, and by delaying publication of the score and libretto. They succeeded in keeping for themselves the direct profits of the first American production of The Pirates of Penzance by opening the production themselves on Broadway, prior to the London production, and they also operated profitable US touring companies of Pirates and Pinafore . However, Gilbert, Sullivan, and their producer, Richard D'Oyly Carte , failed in their efforts, over
6600-415: The foeman bares his steel" and the soaring line for the women, "Go, ye heroes, go to glory". In adapting the four-part chorus "Climbing over rocky mountain" from Thespis for re-use in Pirates , Sullivan took less trouble: he wrote only a single vocal line, suitable for soprano voices. Despite this, the number ends with another example of Sullivan's counterpoint, with the chorus singing the second melody of
6700-501: The former Bijou Theatre). New York has seen over forty major revivals since the premiere. One of these, produced and directed by Winthrop Ames in 1926 at the Plymouth Theatre , ran for 128 performances and gained good notices. A brief 1952 Broadway staging starring Martyn Green , earned Lehman Engel a Tony Award as conductor. Repertory companies that have mounted Pirates numerous times Off-Broadway and on tour in
6800-403: The girls attempt to console him ("Oh dry the glist'ning tear"). The Sergeant of Police and his corps arrive to announce their readiness to arrest the pirates ("When the foeman bares his steel"). The girls loudly express their admiration of the police for facing likely slaughter by fierce and merciless foes. The police are unnerved by this and leave reluctantly. Left alone, Frederic, who is to lead
6900-504: The history of the D'Oyly Carte productions in Gilbert's lifetime (excluding tours): The following tables show the casts of the principal original productions and D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring repertory at various times through to the company's 1982 closure: In 1980, Joseph Papp and the Public Theater of New York City produced a new version of Pirates , directed by Wilford Leach and choreographed by Graciela Daniele , at
7000-428: The matinee, where they read their parts from scripts carried onto the stage, making do with whatever costumes they had on hand. Pirates premiered on 31 December 1879 in New York and was an immediate hit. On 2 January 1880, Sullivan wrote, in another letter to his mother from New York, "The libretto is ingenious, clever, wonderfully funny in parts, and sometimes brilliant in dialogue – beautifully written for music, as
7100-419: The meantime, Gilbert and Sullivan raced to complete and rehearse The Pirates of Penzance . The work's title is a multi-layered joke. On the one hand, Penzance was a docile seaside resort in 1879, and not the place where one would expect to encounter pirates. On the other hand, the title was also a jab at the theatrical "pirates" who had staged unlicensed productions of H.M.S. Pinafore in America. To secure
7200-512: The method has been in use from around the year 1000, the earliest surviving examples in England are from the thirteenth century. These are agreements for military service, proving that a paid contract army was then in existence. Exchequer records of Henry V 's French campaign of 1415, which culminated in the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, including the indentures of all the captains of
7300-449: The most popular G&S works. The London sets were designed by John O'Connor . The critics' notices were generally excellent in both New York and London. The character of Major-General Stanley was widely taken to be a caricature of the popular general Sir Garnet Wolseley . The biographer Michael Ainger, however, doubts that Gilbert intended a caricature of Wolseley, identifying instead General Henry Turner, uncle of Gilbert's wife, as
7400-412: The music rehearsals. Sullivan had sketched out the music for Pirates in England. When he arrived in New York, however, he found that he had left the sketches for Act I behind, and he had to reconstruct the first act from memory, or compose new numbers. Gilbert told a correspondent many years later that Sullivan was unable to recall his setting of the entrance of the women's chorus, so they substituted
7500-559: The new Victorian Arts Centre , directed by John Feraro. It starred Jon English as the Pirate King, Simon Gallaher as Frederic, June Bronhill as Ruth, David Atkins as the Sergeant and Marina Prior as Mabel. The six-week limited season was followed by an Australian national tour from 1984 to 1986 and another tour with same cast in the mid-1990s. In 1985, Papp's Pirates opened the new Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. Gallaher's Essgee Entertainment version of Pirates
7600-508: The next decade, to control the American performance copyrights to Pirates and their other operas. Fiction and plays about pirates were ubiquitous in the 19th century. Walter Scott 's The Pirate (1822) and James Fenimore Cooper 's The Red Rover were key sources for the romanticised, dashing pirate image and the idea of repentant pirates. Both Gilbert and Sullivan had parodied these ideas early in their careers. Sullivan had written
7700-828: The opera and inspired by the success of the Papp version, The Pirate Movie , was released during the Broadway run. [Papp's version] has been regularly revived on both sides of the Atlantic – a British revival in 2000 transferred from the West Yorkshire Playhouse , Leeds , to the Open Air Theatre in Regents' Park – and has also become well established in the repertoire of amateur student societies. No other production has had as much lasting impact or influence. ... It also helped to promote G&S in places where it has been little performed and bring it to
7800-498: The particular abilities of these performers. The skill with which Gilbert and Sullivan used their performers had an effect on the audience: as critic Herman Klein wrote, "we secretly marvelled at the naturalness and ease with which [the Gilbertian quips and absurdities] were said and done. For until then no living soul had seen upon the stage such weird, eccentric, yet intensely human beings .... [They] conjured into existence
7900-439: The pattern for the "modern Major-General". Gilbert disliked Turner, who, unlike the progressive Wolseley, was of the old school of officers. Nevertheless, in the original London production, George Grossmith imitated Wolseley's mannerisms and appearance, particularly his large moustache, and the audience recognised the allusion. Wolseley himself, according to his biographer, took no offence at the caricature and sometimes sang "I am
8000-407: The pattern of most Savoy opera overtures: a lively opening (the melody of "With cat-like tread"), a slow middle section ("Ah, leave me not to pine alone"), and a concluding allegro in a compressed sonata form , in which the themes of "How beautifully blue the sky" and "A paradox, a paradox" are combined. The score parodies several composers, most conspicuously Verdi . "Come, friends, who plough
8100-442: The piece ("Let us gaily tread the measure") while the orchestra plays the first ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Sullivan set a particular vocal challenge for the soprano who portrays Mabel. The Sullivan scholar Gervase Hughes wrote, "Mabel ... must be a coloratura because of 'Poor wand'ring one!', yet 'Dear father, why leave your bed' demands steady beauty of tone throughout the octave F to F, and 'Ah, leave me not to pine' goes
8200-470: The pirate sherry". In the original New York production the revelation by Ruth that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong" prompted the following exchange (recalling a famous passage in H.M.S. Pinafore ): In the original London production, this exchange was shortened to the following: Gilbert deleted the exchange in the 1900 revival, and the Chappell vocal score was revised accordingly. For
8300-461: The pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong". The Major-General is impressed by this and all is forgiven. Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble ex-pirates after all ("Poor Wand'ring Ones" (reprise)). Act I Act II The notices from critics were generally excellent in both New York and London in 1880. In New York, the Herald and
8400-442: The pirates arrive and capture the girls, intending to marry them ("Here's a first rate opportunity"). Mabel warns the pirates that the girls' father is a Major-General ("Hold, monsters!"), who soon arrives and introduces himself (" I am the very model of a modern Major-General "). He appeals to the pirates not to take his daughters, leaving him to face his old age alone. Having heard of the famous Pirates of Penzance, he pretends that he
8500-422: The pirates until his 21st birthday – in 1940. They agree to be faithful to each other until then, though to Mabel "It seems so long" ("Oh, here is love, and here is truth"); Frederic departs. Mabel steels herself ("No, I'll be brave") and tells the police that they must go alone to face the pirates. The police muse that an outlaw might be just like any other man, and it is a shame to deprive him of "that liberty which
8600-510: The police, reflects on his opportunity to atone for a life of piracy ("Now for the pirates' lair"), at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King. They have realised that Frederic's apprenticeship was worded so as to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday – and, because that birthday happens to be on 29 February (in a leap year ), it means that technically only five birthdays have passed ("When you had left our pirate fold"), and he will not reach his twenty-first birthday until he
8700-404: The requirements of Mr. Gilbert like Mr. Sullivan, and vice versa , is a fact universally admitted. One might fancy that verse and music were of simultaneous growth, so closely and firmly are they interwoven. Away from this consideration, the score of The Pirates of Penzance is one upon which Mr. Sullivan must have bestowed earnest consideration, for independently of its constant flow of melody, it
8800-454: The same enthusiasm as Papp's 1980s productions: a 1999 UK touring production received this critique: "No doubt when Papp first staged this show in New York and London it had some quality of cheek or chutzpah or pizzazz or irony or something that accounted for its success. But all that's left now ... is a crass Broadway-style musical arrangement ... and the worst kind of smutty send-up of a historic piece of art." Indenture An indenture
8900-535: The sea" and "You triumph now" are burlesques of Il trovatore , and one of the best-known choral passages from the finale to Act I, "Hail Poetry", is, according to the Sullivan scholar, Arthur Jacobs , a burlesque of the prayer scene, "La Vergine degli Angeli", in Verdi's La forza del destino . However, another musicologist, Nicholas Temperley, writes, "The choral outburst 'Hail, Poetry' in The Pirates of Penzance would need very little alteration to turn it into
9000-439: The secluded spot ("Climbing over rocky mountain"). Frederic reveals himself ("Stop, ladies, pray!"), startling them. He appeals to them to help him reform ("Oh! is there not one maiden breast?"). The girls are fascinated by him, but all reject him, except one: Mabel responds to his plea, chiding her sisters for their lack of charity ("Oh sisters deaf to pity's name for shame!"). She offers Frederic her pity ("Poor wand'ring one"), and
9100-505: The soothing breeze ("Sighing softly to the river"). The girls come looking for him. The pirates leap out to seize them, and the Pirate King urges the captured Major-General to prepare for death. The police rush to their defence but are easily defeated. The Sergeant has one stratagem left: he demands that the pirates yield "in Queen Victoria 's name"; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so. Ruth appears and reveals that
9200-402: The summer of 1879 and made arrangements with theatre manager John T. Ford to present, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre , the authorised productions. He then returned to London. Meanwhile, once Pinafore became a hit in London, the author, composer and producer had the financial resources to produce future shows themselves, and they executed a plan to free themselves from their financial backers in
9300-408: The theatrical newspaper The Era , was that the new work marked a distinct advance on Gilbert and Sullivan's earlier works. The Pall Mall Gazette said, "Of Mr. Sullivan's music we must speak in detail on some other occasion. Suffice it for the present to say that in the new style which he has marked out for himself it is the best he has written." The Graphic wrote: That no composer can meet
9400-400: The two quickly fall in love. The other girls discuss whether to eavesdrop or to leave the new couple alone ("What ought we to do?"), deciding to "talk about the weather," although they steal glances at the affectionate couple ("How beautifully blue the sky"). Frederic warns the young ladies that his old associates will soon return ("Stay, we must not lose our senses"), but before they can flee,
9500-433: The unpublished Thespis score to New York, when there were no plans to revive Thespis , might not have been accidental. In any case, on 10 December 1879, Sullivan wrote 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." As was his usual practice in his operas, Sullivan left
9600-428: The very model of a modern Major-General" for the private amusement of his family and friends. On the coast of Cornwall , during Queen Victoria 's reign, Frederic celebrates the completion of his twenty-first year and the end of his apprenticeship to a gentlemanly band of pirates ("Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry"). The pirates' maid of all work, Ruth, appears and reveals that, as Frederic's nursemaid long ago, she made
9700-539: Was a West End production at the Savoy Theatre, and the Chicago Lyric Opera and English National Opera each also staged the work. From 2006 to 2007 an Opera Australia production toured Australia starring Anthony Warlow as the Pirate King, and in 2007 New York City Opera mounted a new production. In 2013, Scottish Opera produced a British touring production co-produced by the trustees of
9800-581: Was inspired by the Papp version. The Papp version also inspired foreign-language productions in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The Papp production was turned into a film in 1983 , with the original Broadway principal cast reprising their roles, except that Angela Lansbury replaced Estelle Parsons as Ruth. The minor roles used British actors miming to their Broadway counterparts. The film has been shown occasionally on television. Another film based loosely on
9900-443: 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 the incompetent Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on 29 February, and so, technically, he has
10000-699: Was still no international copyright law in 1880, and the first unauthorised New York production was given by the Boston Ideal Opera Company at Booth's Theatre in September of that year. The opera premiered in a German translation by Richard Genée and Camillo Walzel ( Die Piraten ) in Austria at the Theater an der Wien on 1 March 1889, and in Düsseldorf , Germany, on 1 December 1936. The first non-D'Oyly Carte professional production in
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