As the UK celebrates national ‘Speak Like a Pirate Day’ Tarantara Productions announce that their limited UK tour of Gilbert and Sullivan’s witty and touching masterpiece The Pirates of Penzance will open on 09 January 2025 at Chichester Festival Theatre, touring until mid February.
The much-loved swashbuckling classic will be directed by Glyndebourne favourite Donna Stirrup and conducted by popular BBC Radio 3 presenter Martin Handley. The fifty strong company of internationally renowned singers and orchestra will bring to life the story of a pirate’s apprentice who falls head over heels in love with the daughter of a Major General with hilarious consequences. This production will let Gilbert and Sullivan to speak as richly as they intended.
The tour will visit Chichester Festival Theatre, Darlington Hippodrome, Swansea Grand, Cheltenham Everyman Theatre, Eastbourne Congress Theatre and Poole Lighthouse Theatre.
Nearly 150 years after first playing in New York City, The Pirates of Penzance remains one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular works. It contains some of their most memorable melodies including ‘I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General’ ,‘A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One’ and ‘Poor wand’ring one’ remaining one of the most frequently performed Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
The Pirates of Penzance is Presented by Tarantara Productions a professional company established in 2014 to perform the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan to the highest standards. Tarantara’s performances reject the outdated stylised conventions of the past but without embracing those modern ‘updatings’ of this glorious repertoire which, in attempting to reinvent the genre, do not do justice to the essence of what are a set of core works within the English speaking music theatre repertoire.
Conductor and Joint Founder of Tarantara Martin Handley said; ”Gilbert and Sullivan have had a bad Press! Over the 150 years since they were first performed with Gilbert’s structure, precision and flair the operettas’ have taken on a very formulaic feel to the way in which the music is performed and staged, removing the humanity from operettas that are in the end about real human emotions in stories which are still funny, pertinent, satirical and touching. If you scrape off the additional layers of varnish that have accrued, we believe they come up bright and new. It’s amazing how little you have to do to make these pieces work – if you trust the material, it shines through.
These are core works within the English-speaking music theatre repertoire: our productions seek to do them justice by rejecting the outdated stylised conventions of the past, cherishing their essence while reinventing them for the 21st century, in other words we hope to put a fresh gloss on tradition, and restore Gilbert and Sullivan’s original intentions.
We aim to do just this, building an audience for the future, as well as captivating existing fans of this repertoire, performing the music in as vibrant and true a way as possible with the highest calibre of singer, and with the size of orchestra Sullivan envisaged”.
Jump aboard for a joyful pirate adventure which will bring Gilbert and Sullivan’s popular masterpiece back to life for new audiences and fans alike.
For more information visit www.piratespenzanceshow.co.uk
