The Pirates of Penzance - The Slave of Duty

2022年12月15日

ペンザンスの海賊; または、The Slave of Dutyは 2 幕のコミックオペラで、音楽はアーサーサリバン、台本はW. S. ギルバートです。公式初演は1879 年 12 月 31 日にニューヨーク市の5 番街劇場で行われ、観客と批評家の両方から好評を博しました。物語は、21年目を終え、見習いから解放され、心の優しい海賊団に加わったフレデリックに関するものです。彼はメイベルを含むスタンリー少将の娘たちと出会い、2 人の若者はすぐに恋に落ちます。しかし、フレデリックはすぐに自分が 2 月 29 日に生まれたことを知りました。厳密には、誕生日はうるう年に一度しかありません。彼の年季奉公は、彼が「21歳の誕生日」まで海賊の見習いを続けることを明記しており、つまり、彼はさらに63年間奉仕しなければならない. 自分の義務感に縛られたフレデリックの唯一の慰めは、メイベルが彼を忠実に待つことに同意することです. (English) The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Its official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where both audiences and critics received it well. The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets the daughters of Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. However, Frederic soon learns he was born on 29 February, so technically, he has a birthday only once each leap year. His indenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday," meaning that he must serve for another 63 years.[2] Bound by his sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.

The Pirates of Penzance - The Slave of Duty

PLOT

Act I

On the coast of Cornwall, during Queen Victoria's reign, Frederic celebrates the completion of his twenty-first year and the end of his apprenticeship to a gentlemanly band of pirates.

The pirates' maid of all work, Ruth, appears and reveals that as Frederic's nursemaid long ago, she made a mistake "through being hard of hearing": Mishearing Frederic's father's instructions, she apprenticed him to a pirate, instead of to a ship's pilot.

Frederic has never seen any woman other than Ruth, and he believes her to be beautiful. However, the pirates know better and suggest that Frederic take Ruth with him when he returns to civilization.

Frederic announces that, although it pains him, his sense of duty is so strong that he will be forced to devote himself to the pirates' extermination once free from his apprenticeship.

He also points out that they are not successful pirates: since they are all orphans, they allow their prey to go free if they, too, are orphans.

Frederic notes that this has got in so captured ships' companies routinely claiming to be orphans.

Frederic invites the pirates to give up piracy and go with him so that he does not need to destroy them. Still, the Pirate King says that contrasted with respectability. Piracy is comparatively honest.

The pirates depart, leaving Frederic and Ruth.

Frederic sees a group of beautiful young girls approaching the pirate lair and realizes that Ruth misled him about her appearance.

Sending Ruth away, Frederic hides before the girls arrive.

The girls burst exuberantly upon the secluded spot.

Frederic reveals himself, startling them.

He appeals to them to help him reform.

The girls are fascinated by him, but all reject him, except one: Mabel responds to his plea, chiding her sisters for their lack of charity.

She offers Frederic her pity, and the two quickly fall in love. The other girls discuss whether to eavesdrop or to leave the new couple alone, deciding to "talk about the weather."

However, they steal glances at the affectionate couple.

Frederic warns the young ladies that his old associates will soon return, but before they can flee, the pirates arrive and capture the girls, intending to marry them.

Mabel warns the pirates that the girls' father is a Major-General, who soon arrives and introduces himself.

He appeals to the pirates not to take his daughters, leaving him to face his old age alone.

Having heard of the famous Pirates of Penzance, he pretends that he is an orphan to elicit their sympathy.

The soft-hearted pirates release the girls, making Major-General Stanley and his honorary daughter members of their band.

Act II

The Major-General sits in a ruined chapel on his estate, surrounded by his daughters.

His conscience is tortured by the lie he told the pirates, and the girls attempt to console him.

10)

The Sergeant of Police and his corps arrive to announce their readiness to arrest the pirates.

The girls loudly express their admiration of the police for facing likely slaughter by fierce and merciless foes.

The police are unnerved by this and leave reluctantly.

11)

Left alone, Frederic, who is to lead the police, reflects on his opportunity to atone for a life of piracy, at which point he encounters Ruth and the Pirate King.

They have realized that Frederic's apprenticeship was worded to bind him to them until his twenty-first birthday - and, because that birthday happens to be on the 29th of February, it means that technically only five birthdays have passed.

12)

He will not reach his twenty-first birthday until he is in his eighties.

Frederic is convinced by this logic and agrees to rejoin the pirates. He then sees it as his duty to inform the Pirate King of the Major-General's deception.

The outraged outlaw declares that the pirates' "revenge will be swift and terrible."

13)

Frederic meets Mabel, and she pleads with him to stay, but he feels bound by his duty to the pirates until his 21st birthday - in 1940. They agree to be faithful to each other until then, though to Mabel, "It seems so long"; Frederic departs. Mabel steels herself and tells the police that they must go alone to face the pirates.

They muse that an outlaw might be just like any other man, and it is a shame to deprive him of "that liberty which is so dear to all."

The police hide on hearing the approach of the pirates, who have stolen onto the estate, intending to take revenge for the Major-General's lie.

14)

Just then, Major-General Stanley appears, sleepless with guilt, and the pirates also hide while the Major-General listens to the soothing breeze.

The girls come looking for him.

The pirates leap out to seize them, and the Pirate King urges the captured Major-General to prepare for death.

15)

The police rush to their defense but are quickly defeated.

The Sergeant has one stratagem left: he demands that the pirates yield "in Queen Victoria's name"; the pirates, overcome with loyalty to their Queen, do so.

16)

Ruth appears and reveals that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong."

The Major-General is impressed by this, and all is forgiven. Frederic and Mabel are reunited, and the Major-General is happy to marry his daughters to the noble ex-pirates.

Act One Finale - The Pirates of Penzance | Cambridge University G&S Society at The Minack Theatre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4vUnDKmy0c

The Minack

https://minack.com/

The Cambridge University Gilbert & Sullivan Society's 'The Pirates of Penzance'!!! Performed at The Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Penzance, 17th - 21st September 2018.

An apprentice to a band of pirates, Frederic has turned 21. He has chosen to leave piracy forever as he says farewell to his former colleagues, who should appear but the beautiful Mabel, daughter to the esteemed Major General Stanley, and her many sisters. The two falls in love, and despite the group initially being captured by the pirates, they are soon released as the pirates have a soft spot for orphans, which Major General Stanley exploits. But despite a seemingly perfect life ahead for Frederic and Mabel, the pirates soon find a way to get at Frederic's sense of duty to the pirates.

The Pirates of Penzance - The Slave of Duty