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The Pirates of Penzance
The witty and rollicking tale of a young man apprenticed to a band of pirates too kindhearted for their own good, The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty remains one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most beloved and frequently revived works. This newly engraved performing edition is based on Sullivan’s autograph, contemporary copyists’ scores, and both the first and second editions of the vocal score. It corrects numerous errors that have crept in over the years and is the first edition to offer performers the choice of using either the 1880 or 1908 versions of the Act II finale. Aficionados will be particularly delighted with the first accurate full score of the “Climbing over Rocky Mountain” section, which incorporates music from the legendary lost Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Thespis. Introduction by the editors. Instrumentation.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1879
About the author
W.S. Gilbert
718 books36 followersBritish playwright and lyricist Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) wrote a series of comic operas, including
Her Majesty's Ship Pinafore
(1878) and
The Pirates of Penzance
(1879), with composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.
This English dramatist, librettist, poet, and illustrator in collaboration with composer Sullivan produced fourteen comic operas, which include The Mikado , one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre.
Opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups throughout and beyond the English-speaking world continue to perform regularly these operas as well as most of their other Savoy operas. From these works, lines, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!", and "Let the punishment fit the crime," form common phrases of the English language.
Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads , an extensive collection of light verse, which his own comical drawings accompany.
His creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , the "lyrical facility" of Gilbert "and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since."
This English dramatist, librettist, poet, and illustrator in collaboration with composer Sullivan produced fourteen comic operas, which include The Mikado , one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre.
Opera companies, repertory companies, schools and community theatre groups throughout and beyond the English-speaking world continue to perform regularly these operas as well as most of their other Savoy operas. From these works, lines, such as "short, sharp shock", "What, never? Well, hardly ever!", and "Let the punishment fit the crime," form common phrases of the English language.
Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads , an extensive collection of light verse, which his own comical drawings accompany.
His creative output included more than 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature , the "lyrical facility" of Gilbert "and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
May 19, 2019
This was a faboulasly popular play done by the genious of Gilbert and Sulavan in the year of 1879.
The pirates attack the shore of Cornwall in this rollicking little venture of love and duty.
This book is replete with complete score and a filmographyand discography. I would highly recommend you read it and go to see it preformed.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
The pirates attack the shore of Cornwall in this rollicking little venture of love and duty.
This book is replete with complete score and a filmographyand discography. I would highly recommend you read it and go to see it preformed.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond
December 14, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 3, 2020
My husband had a collection of the complete scores of G&S. Both of us grew up on their operettas. In fact, when we were set up on our blind date by our dads, our shared love of G&S was the only info they got right!
Pirates was actually my very first one. My mom used to brag that I was the only 4 year old around who knew what a paradox was. I could also sing "Three Little Maids" from "The Mikado." I really belonged more in West Sussex than Wisconsin.
Pirates was actually my very first one. My mom used to brag that I was the only 4 year old around who knew what a paradox was. I could also sing "Three Little Maids" from "The Mikado." I really belonged more in West Sussex than Wisconsin.
August 8, 2010
If, by some unlikely mishap, you don't already know The Pirates of Penzance, then try and put that right! It's still one of the funniest things of its kind ever done. Fredric's kind but rather deaf nursemaid was told to apprentice him to a pilot, misheard, and indentured him to a pirate instead. Now Fredric is 21, or so he thinks, and stuns the gang by telling them he's leaving. But he falls in love with the beautiful Mabel, who also happens to be one of the adopted daughters of the redoubtable Major General Stanley, and after that things get seriously complicated.
Bonus: once you've seen it, you'll also be able to appreciate the innumerable parodies of the Major General's Song, which I think is supposed to be the most parodied song of all time. In particular, check out Tom Lehrer's The Elements and Kevin Wald's I Am The Very Model Of A Heroine Barbarian...
Bonus: once you've seen it, you'll also be able to appreciate the innumerable parodies of the Major General's Song, which I think is supposed to be the most parodied song of all time. In particular, check out Tom Lehrer's The Elements and Kevin Wald's I Am The Very Model Of A Heroine Barbarian...
August 3, 2024
Not sure how I finished this in less than an hour. Maybe it’s a short play to read; maybe it has to do with the fact that I already know these songs by heart, which accelerated my reading speed. But nonetheless, this is a truly amazing and comedic work of art. 😂
My favorite part from the dialogue (outside the song):
Major-General: But wait a bit. I object to pirates as sons-in-law.
Pirate King: We object to Major-Generals as fathers-in-law. But we waive that point. We do not press it. We look over it.
Gen.: (aside) Hah! an idea! (aloud) And do you mean to say that you would deliberately rob me of these, the sole remaining props of my old age, and leave me to go through the remainder of my life unfriended, unprotected, and alone?
King: Well, yes, that's the idea.
My favorite part from the dialogue (outside the song):
Major-General: But wait a bit. I object to pirates as sons-in-law.
Pirate King: We object to Major-Generals as fathers-in-law. But we waive that point. We do not press it. We look over it.
Gen.: (aside) Hah! an idea! (aloud) And do you mean to say that you would deliberately rob me of these, the sole remaining props of my old age, and leave me to go through the remainder of my life unfriended, unprotected, and alone?
King: Well, yes, that's the idea.
July 8, 2014
Singing skill is required for Gilbert and Sullivan. Alas, I am tone deaf. I so wanted to be one of the sisters. Or a pirate, that would have been fun, too.
There's no objectivity here. I love this script unreservedly. I love the stage productions I've seen, and the film with Kevin Kline. Love, love, love: "with cat like tread/upon our prey we steal/in silence dread/our cautious way we feel/no sound at all/we scarcely speak a word/a fly's footfall would be distinctly heard."
Production company script
There's no objectivity here. I love this script unreservedly. I love the stage productions I've seen, and the film with Kevin Kline. Love, love, love: "with cat like tread/upon our prey we steal/in silence dread/our cautious way we feel/no sound at all/we scarcely speak a word/a fly's footfall would be distinctly heard."
Production company script
August 21, 2020
I did an online search for books fitting a Victorian Humor category for an online book group annual reading challenge. I didn't feel like Dickens (too long, often depressing and I've been rather low and depressed lately). Honestly, I didn't even feel like reading humor. Not a bit. But when I saw this listed, along with Pygmalion (which I love) and The Importance of Being Earnest (which I also love), I decided to try to find the vocal score for it. It's listed on Goodreads, so it counts as a book. ;) Then I found out it was also on Librivox, and I thought, why not? I'll just listen to it. Little did I know the volunteers were actually going to perform the entire score WITH music! It seriously lifted me a bit today.
https://librivox.app/book/348
https://librivox.app/book/348
March 3, 2020
My favorite Gilbert and Sullivan, tied with the Mikado.
August 2, 2024
Frederick is freed of his indentures to the judiciously ferocious Pirates of Penzance. What will he do with his newfound freedom? Listened to this on The Classic Tales Podcast.
January 16, 2026
good old timey piratical theatre nonsense
October 14, 2014
Read as part of The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan on my Kindle as I watched (and listened) to it on video.
As I said on my review of H.M.S. Pinafore, I would never recommend reading these without watching or at least listening to the performance, as the songs are at the heart of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas. However, I often find it hard to tell what the words are so watching while having the text in front of me was a great help (especially in those cross-singing duets!).
As I said on my review of H.M.S. Pinafore, I would never recommend reading these without watching or at least listening to the performance, as the songs are at the heart of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas. However, I often find it hard to tell what the words are so watching while having the text in front of me was a great help (especially in those cross-singing duets!).
September 8, 2015
Basically sang the whole way through ^_^ Quite fun. I had the movie running through my head the whole time which is probably part of why it was so fun!
December 31, 2024
This is my favorite, outside of maybe Princess Ida, but if you can find the video with Kevin Kline as Pirate King (you’ve never seen anything funnier, you catch more of his humor every time you watch), Linda Ronstadt as Mabel (she’s quite good), I forget who plays Frederick (but he’s really the best singer in the video production), and Angela Lansbury as nanny Ruth (she’s excellent as well, especially on the funny patter song stolen from Ruddgore). We’ve read the score several times and enjoyed the music both by the Doyle-Carte and the video. If you watch the video, note that some verses are cut, and those in classical Ed might find it funny to note the words of the cut verse from the major-general’s song, when he says he “knows the croaking chorus of the frogs of Aristophanes,” hilarious because everyone knew that in Gilbert’s day (and sadly none of us get these references). Indeed is anything better than Gilbert’s poking fun at the British nobility throughout, and even Sullivan’s humor in his incredible setting to “Hail, Poetry” and having the pirates sing “no sound at all / we never speak a word / a fly’s footfall would be distinctly heard!” at the most fortissimo decibels possible? The humor gets better every time the more you listen carefully. :)
May 24, 2017
There's no matching "The Pirates of Penzance" as far as Gilbert and Sullivan operettas or early musical theatre in general goes. Wacky, unpredictable, full of high art and low culture, poetry, slapstick and the absurd, it's a bit of farcical fluff that nonetheless resonates over a century after its premiere. Though the Joseph Papp revisal in the 1980s DID perform some necessary structural updates as far as the evolution of musical theatre as a craft, it's impossible to deny that the basic bones of musical comedy were truly born here, and not with the Princess Theatre farces of Coward and Wodehouse a few decades later.
April 6, 2025
Another masterpiece by W.S. Gilbert, scored by Arthur Sullivan
My favorite part of the story involves the first encounter between t"The Slave of Duty" and Mabel (and her friends).
"Yes, yes, let's talk about the weather."
Every aria is so cleverly written, with words that fall into place as naturally as if they were improvised as everyday conversation. Except for how they rhyme. And scan. Expressing so much in very few words.
Nobody's arias can equal those of W.S. Gilbert. I'm glad he didn't become a barrister, as his family wished him to be.
And oh yes indeedy, FIVE STARS!
My favorite part of the story involves the first encounter between t"The Slave of Duty" and Mabel (and her friends).
"Yes, yes, let's talk about the weather."
Every aria is so cleverly written, with words that fall into place as naturally as if they were improvised as everyday conversation. Except for how they rhyme. And scan. Expressing so much in very few words.
Nobody's arias can equal those of W.S. Gilbert. I'm glad he didn't become a barrister, as his family wished him to be.
And oh yes indeedy, FIVE STARS!
April 12, 2018
This is a hilarious satirical play on Victorian society. It mocks the whole idea of the "sense of duty", which was a common theme during the 19th century. It also mocks the "modern major general", the house of peers (which turn out to be a band of hooligan pirates), and the police force. Overall, it is a hilarious comedy and worth the read (it's a quick one, too!) We read it aloud in literature class, and there was a bit of extra laughter mixed in for sure. :) And don't forget to listen to the musical!
January 23, 2019
This play is absolutely brilliant. I love the premise, and the characters are so ridiculous that they're each memorable in their own right. I didn't know what to expect in terms of a resolution to the central conflict, and it comes together better than I could have imagined. And, of course, it's got the ingenious song "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General," so you can't really go wrong with this one.
August 27, 2019
3/5 stars!
I don’t really think it’s the books fault as such, I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrator sounded like when you type in something as a joke on google translate and it feeds it back to you in a monotone voice. Which made the whole book seem like it had no soul whatsoever which is a shame.
I don’t really think it’s the books fault as such, I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrator sounded like when you type in something as a joke on google translate and it feeds it back to you in a monotone voice. Which made the whole book seem like it had no soul whatsoever which is a shame.
September 1, 2025
A Libretto of Contradictions
How do I review this? At times, the libretto felt clear and enjoyable, with moments of genuine engagement. But just as often, it veered into confusing and oddly disjointed territory. The shifts in tone and structure made it difficult to stay immersed.
In the end, I didn’t enjoy the libretto—and I felt similarly about the musical itself. Despite flashes of promise, the overall experience left me unsatisfied.
How do I review this? At times, the libretto felt clear and enjoyable, with moments of genuine engagement. But just as often, it veered into confusing and oddly disjointed territory. The shifts in tone and structure made it difficult to stay immersed.
In the end, I didn’t enjoy the libretto—and I felt similarly about the musical itself. Despite flashes of promise, the overall experience left me unsatisfied.
August 23, 2017
Thou gildest e'en the pirate's trade.
September 26, 2017
It is still really funny. A pilot vs. pirate mixup.
March 12, 2020
Great story that is best heard with the songs being sung. I would go see this on stage.
February 4, 2021
I was a part of a production of this several years ago. It was lots of fun. Love the music.
November 11, 2022
Not for me. Humour wasn't great, story had some questionable elements. No thanks.
February 17, 2023
One of the best they did.
May 12, 2024
This was a reading of the musical so it was very different from watching it live. The voice actor is very good and did a wonderful job. However, it's not the same without the music.
August 13, 2025
Read it as I'm performing as Edith it's mot a bad play but I personally prefer Shakespeare
October 6, 2025
Very fun. Easy read. Not as fun as the musical, but I loved it.
August 2, 2023
I read this little book of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera during a stay in Penzance. It shows its age but he's nice enough. I took the opportunity to see the film with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews