The Pirates of Penzance Tickets

Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance is back in theatreland! You’re going to love the English National Opera’s smash-hit production of this swashbuckling, wonderfully silly farce, predicted to light up the venue. More than 120 years old and seldom off the stage somewhere in the world ever since, this is classic toe-tapping stuff.

Pirates of Penzance - A dazzling, fun-filled farce with gorgeous music

You’ll meet 21 year old apprentice pirate Frederic, who collides with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley and falls in love. She feels the same. But Frederick was born in a leap year and only has a birthday every four years. Because he has to remain apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday, he’ll actually be with them for another 63 years. Bound by a powerful sense of duty Frederic complies, and loyal Mabel agrees to wait for him.

This is one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most popular comic operas, full of memorable melodies like ‘I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General’, ‘A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One’ and ‘With Cat-like Tread’. An opera in two acts, it originally premiered in New York during 1879 and scored an instant hit. It debuted in London the year after, and the rest is history.

A comic opera that has delighted audiences since 1879

New York has staged more than 40 major revivals since the premiere. It has been adapted into Yiddish, renamed i Yam Gazlonim and nominated for 2007’s Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival. It has been re-set on a Caribbean island with the addition of a voodoo curse, and Pirates of Penzance The Ballet! premiered in 1991. There have been adaptations in Australia and New Zealand, an all-male version, and the opera has always been a huge favourite with am dram and school theatre groups.

Cast and creative team of Pirates of Penzance

This revival is directed by Sarah Tipple and conducted by Natalie Murray Beale. Richard Suart, who specialises in the comic roles of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, operetta and avant-garde contemporary operas, plays the Major General. He has performed frequently with the ENO as well as other companies across the UK, Europe and North America. John Savournin, who plays the Pirate King, is one of the UK's most versatile and charismatic performers and directors. ENO Harewood Artist Isabelle Peters sings the role of Mabel, and former Harewood artist William Morgan sings Frederic.

This is a co-production with Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and the Saarländische Staatstheater Saarbrücken, such a popular show it’s bound to sell fast.