The Carl Rosa Company returns to the United States with a tour of its production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s show, “The Pirates of Penzance.” Arriving in Concord on Thursday, March 8, at 7:30 p.m., this award-winning revived production features stunning new period costumes, staging and designs.
Written in 1879, “The Pirates of Penzance” is one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s greatest comic operas. With magnificent send-ups of grand opera, it presents a topsy-turvy plot involving a band of orphaned pirates (distinctly deficient in cut-throatedness); a Major General who doesn’t know his rifles from his javelins; the flat-footed Cornish Constabulary; a bevy of blushing maidens; and the dashing Frederic, who, born on a leap year, may be aged 21, or only “5 and a little bit over.”
Now 127 years since its premiere, “The Pirates of Penzance” remains an all-time popular favorite, with familiar songs such as the patter-song “I am the very model of a modern Major General” and “A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.”
This production of The Pirates of Penzance won the International Award for Operetta and Best Director and Best Production at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festivals in San Francisco and in Philadelphia.
With West End star Rosemary Ashe (the original Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera) as Ruth the company includes stalwarts of the D’Oyly Carte, Bruce Graham (sergeant of police) and Charlotte Page (Mabel). Other casting includes Barry Clark (Maj. Gen. Stanley), with Andrew Friedhoff (Frederic), Kevin Kyle (Samuel) and Lesley Cox (Kate). The production is directed and designed by the company’s artistic director Peter Mulloy, with choreography by Steve Elias. The Carl Rosa Orchestra is conducted by Martin Handley.
Tickets to the March 8 performance of Pirates of Penzance range from $31.50 to $51.50 and can be purchased at the Capitol Center box office, by phone at 225-1111 or online at ccanh.com. There will be a pre-show chat at 6:30 p.m. with Granite State Opera’s Phil Lauriat in the Governor’s Hall of the Capitol Center.
Pirates of Penzance is sponsored by Landvest Inc.