John Allison - Opera Australia DVD: The Pirates of Penzance

30 May 2007

When talking about musical theatre, people tend to categorise musicals as 'light' and opera as 'serious'. Purists will often refer to Gilbert & Sullivan as lightweight yet the librettos are literate, laced with biting satire and not as silly as some more 'serious' operas and the music is memorable, engaging and melodic. David Hobson, who plays the role of Frederic in Opera Australia's current production of The Pirates of Penzance, describes G&S as 'accessible classical' which sums it up well. Pirates is playing live in Melbourne (17 May to 2 June 2007) or you can relax at home with the excellent DVD.

In the Melbourne production, Anthony Warlow (the swashbuckling Pirate King) and Reg Livermore (Major-General Stanley) go head to head in a top-notch cast that includes David Hobson as Frederic, Taryn Fiebig as Mabel the girl he loves and Suzanne Johnston as Ruth, his nurse

Director Stuart Maunder is a seasoned Savoyard who has directed The Pirates of Penzance for the D'Oyly Carte Company at London's Savoy Theatre. For this new production, Maunder has worked with designers Roger Kirk (costumes), Richard Roberts (sets) and choreographer Elizabeth Hill.

The Pirates of Penzance was written in 1879 and was an immediate success, opening simultaneously in New York and Portsmouth, England. This unusual double debut was calculated to avoid theatrical piracy - when HMS Pinafore premiered in England a few years earlier, unscrupulous American entrepreneurs had mounted unauthorised versions in the US, so a New York premiere for Pirates established Gilbert & Sullivan's very valuable copyright.

The plot involves romance, crime, duty and a birthday twist. When a boatload of pirates ties up in a sleepy English seaside town, the police are alarmed but the ladies are intrigued. And when one of the pirates, a naïve young apprentice named Frederic, meets the beautiful daughter of one of the local pillars of society, things get interesting.

The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most popular operettas ever written. It features some of Gilbert's wittiest lyrics, which remain timeless, and Sullivan's catchiest tunes, including I am the Pirate King, With Cat Like Tread and A policeman's lot is not a happy one.

There is only one principal change in the cast for the DVD with seasoned performer John Bolton Wood playing the role of Major-General Stanley.

The conductor of this production Andrew Greene and director Stuart Maunder have collaborated on various projects for over 23 years and it shows. Maunder has adopted, as he says on the Extras, a traditional classical approach to Pirates so there are no time shifts such as Baz Luhrman's 1950s setting of La Boheme. He says Pirates "is for actors who can sing".

The Extras include interviews with Stuart Maunder and Andrew Greene, as well as cast members. Interesting biographical and historical facts emerge and there is a definite feeling of 'behind the scenes' commentary and insights. You also get the sense that they all had a lot of fun working together on this production which is part of the G&S appeal. If you don't feel like singing along, you've "missed definitely the plot".

- John Allison