© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

On Stage: 'Penzance' is a Light-Hearted Affair

“Rollicking” is probably not the first word that springs to mind when you think about opera, but The Pirates of Penzance is just such a light-hearted affair, with happy pirates, a love-struck couple, and a leap-year birthday that set the story in motion.

This comic opera was the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera to officially premiere in the United States. It was an attempt to prevent the loss of artistic control as well as profits: America did not have copyright laws for foreigners yet, and as a result, a number of unauthorized productions of H.M.S. Pinafore were produced, with no royalties paid to Gilbert and Sullivan, and with frequent alterations to the book.  The Pirates of Penzance made its debut onstage at New York City's Fifth Avenue Theatre on the last day of December, 1879, and it was received with open arms by audiences and critics alike.

It is entirely possible that you have never seen a production of this opera, yet are still familiar with one of its most enduringly popular and most parodied numbers, the “Major-General's Song.” Everyone from Tom Lehrer to the cartoon Animaniacs and even Dr. Who have had a go at the tune. You can hear it live and in its original form on May 20th and 21st when the Wichita Grand Opera performs The Pirates of Penzance at Bradley Fair. It's a family-friendly show, and it includes an option to dine on the patio.

Sanda Moore Coleman received an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University in 1991. Since then, she has been the arts and community editor for The Martha's Vineyard Times, a teaching fellow at Harvard University, and an assistant editor at Image. In 2011, she received the Maureen Egan Writers Exchange prize for fiction from Poets & Writers magazine. She has spent more than 30 years performing, reviewing, and writing for theatre.