Pirates of Penzance

About the show

Somerset Opera’s 2026 Tour presents…
W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan’s…
Pirates of Penzance
Somerset Opera returns with Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. Following last year’s highly successful MHS Pinafore it will again be directed by Sarah Helsby-Hughes (who also directs at Buxton) and music from Sam Baker.

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 the incompetent Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love.

Frederic learns, however, that he was born on 29 February, and 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.

Bound by his own sense of duty to honour his bond with the pirates, Frederic’s only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. The pirates’ maid-of-all-work, Ruth, eventually reveals a fact that saves the day.