In this age of the modern British and American musical we have had several hugely successful stage, film and video productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. It has rocked, jazzed and tapped its way into our affection as one of the most popular of all the Savoy Operas.

We wanted to present a new Carl Rosa Opera production that had some of this fresh and contemporary approach but that also honoured the original Victorian operetta in much the same way as Carl Rosa’s past productions of Iolanthe, Yeomen of the Guard and The Mikado have tried to do.

I first developed the idea of presenting the lost script and music of the earlier 1879 Pirates in 1995 for presentation at the Buxton International Festival. The production subsequently won fire major awards in Britain and the USA. To embark upon such a monumental jigsaw of intrigue and new understanding, I called upon the services of some of the world’s leading experts to guide me in this project. This led me to Fredric Woodbridge Wilson at the Pierpont Morgan Music Library in New York and Dr David Russell Hulme in the UK. We have since worked together on the award-winning tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Russell Hulme is a world-leading Sullivan expert and he has done much work on the evolution of the musical text (and the associated lyrics) of Sullivan and other composers.

With his detailed knowledge of the autograph score he has established what was presented in both 1879 productions and he has reinstated the act two finale in this production.

Gilbert’s original Libretto Love and Duty was loosely based upon his own adaptation of Offenbach’s Les Brigands of 1871 and his earlier play Our Island 1870.

We do not know exactly what was performed on the historic performance day of the new Pirates of Penzance in Paignton, but it was certainly not the finished show produced in New York. The last shipment had to be sent by steamer some two weeks before the American premiere. At that stage several numbers – including ‘Poor wandering one’ and ‘With cat-like tread’ – had not been completed.

The dialogue too, would have been in a state of flux. We certainly know that Gilbert altered his text considerably as he fine-tuned the production towards opening night. Fortunately a manuscript survives – albeit not in Gilbert’s hand that preserves a good deal of the author’s earlier working version. This was the copy submitted to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office in order that the new play could be granted a performing license.

Whether this script was left in Britain before Gilbert left for the States or was sent over subsequently is not known but there is every likelihood that it contained some sections as they were given in Paignton. From the single press review of that performance, we know that a lost ‘Hymn to the Nobility’ which was present only in the Lord Chamberlain’s text was sung.

Detailed examination of the autograph score reveals several other sections present in this source that were set but cut before orchestration – all of which could have been performed in Paignton where the accompaniment was a basic affair filled in at the piano.

The most interesting musical finds have been in the Act II Finale and several substantial sections have been reinstated for our production, ‘A hymn of allegiance to the monarch’, ‘To Queen Victoria’s name we bow’ and an introductory recitative for Ruth and the Pirate King may well have been heard in Paignton, but these sections were cut before orchestration and could not, therefore, have been performed in New York. The reprise of ‘Hail Poetry’ as ‘Hail House of Peers’ was cut after the Finale had been scored and may well have been included at the New York premiere.

Certainly the return of the Major-General’s song closed the finale in New York and is included in our production before the reprise of ‘Poor wandering one’ that subsequently replaced it – possibly for the first London production the following summer.

Elsewhere we have broadened the ensemble’s participation by re-allocating solo lines to minor principals in accordance with Gilbert’s distribution in the license copy, even though it is unlikely the music was ever performed this way. Also short sections of verse, probably intended as recitative and never set, have been included here and there.

We wanted this new production to be in the style of elegant operetta presented by an Opera Company rather than another modern presentation of a touring musical.

Our settings, costumes and staging have been created to evoke a bygone high Victorian era. I have worked to create a fresh new stage picture that is based upon the original designs from the first New York production. The aim is to present the spirit of both 1879 productions without claiming to be ‘definitive’ in any way.

In learning about how the piece was conceived, written and elements discarded, we discovered and share new insights into the makings of each part of the play and its players.

We discover the Pirate King making references to ‘working as a sort of Piratical maid of all work’ who ‘makes the bread and piratical beds’ and who ‘blacks piratical boots and shoes’ in his daily grind of looking after the lazy pirates. This then becomes far-removed from the image of a modern Kevin Kline style leather clad-pirate as seen in the Joseph Papp’s wonderful musical version.

I hope you share with us the idea that in presenting the script and music it helps to shape each character with a little more detail and understanding. For instance, in the spirit of Gilbert’s original lampooning satire, the encore of the Major General’s patter song has a new contemporary verse written by Simon Butteriss.

Is has been our intention in this production to re-appraise and honour a British masterpiece that is a part of the great institution known as Gilbert and Sullivan. Whilst remaining faithful to their joint aims of ‘treating a thoroughly farcical subject with the utmost seriousness’ I hope that it will be enjoyed by a modern day audience.

Peter Mulloy
Director

‘A Package of Paignton’ by Dr David Russell Hulme