‘Pirates Of Penzance’ Concludes Chautauqua Opera Season

Published in the The Post-Journal, Jamestown, NY
August 21, 2009
By Robert W. Plyler

CHAUTAUQUA - The Chautauqua Opera Company ends the 2009 season, not with a bang, but a big round of laughter.

After three grand dramas, the company is presenting Gilbert and Sullivan's eminently silly ''The Pirates of Penzance.''

As with most of the pair's compositions, there is a very serious message about British values and political choices, behind all the silliness, but the audience is allowed just to laugh.

Penzance is a small vacation community on the south coast of England. The title of the show would compare to ''The Pirates of Bemus Point,'' if it had been written here. It is the story of Frederick, a dashing young man whose parents intended him for an honest job, but his silly nursemaid accidentally signed an indenture for him to be a pirate.

Throughout the play, Frederick serves the pirates, then seeks to destroy them, then serves them again, as everyone has learned that he is completely enslaved by his sense of duty, and he is constantly the subject of noble-sounding appeals. The pirates themselves have a problem, since they are all orphans, so they have vowed never to attack nor rob an orphan.

Naturally, everyone they come up against, claims to be an orphan, leaving them ever lacking prey.

Often, in recent years, this show has been altered to serve as a star vehicle, for Kevin Kline, Linda Ronstadt, and Robbie Benson, among others. Director Jay Lesenger has wisely maintained its original ensemble quality, with attention for everyone, all around.

Vale Rideout was a handsome and dashing Frederick, and sang out with a vibrant and powerful tenor. He was well matched by Sarah Jane McMahon, as his beloved Mabel, whose bright coloratura rose effortlessly above all the mayhem, and who rolled off a dazzling set of cartwheels and a split, to go with it.

Kathryn Cowdrick was funny as Ruth, the nursemaid who has followed her charge into piracy, rather than admit her error, and Keith Jurosko did his familiar show stealing as the befuddled Major General whose many lovely daughters somehow keep attracting pirates.

Sean Anderson was a robust Pirate King, and Jorell Williams held all attention, when performing as the chief of police.

Conductor Jerome Shannon and the Chautauqua Opera Orchestra made every note distinct, as the score demands, and they demonstrated outstanding flexibility in dynamics, as the production required. Ironically, on this show, with its lightning fast music and crucially important words, the super-titles which have been introduced for the first time this season, were not used.

Peter Dean Beck's set was appropriately cartoonish, as the silly plot demands, but it was wonderfully effective and changed without ever slowing the action for a moment. Bill Fabris' choreography made a lot of singers who happened to be dancing, look as though they might be dancers, after all.

I know some people who just can't stand the silliness of Gilbert and Sullivan, but except for them, I can't imagine anyone who couldn't laugh and be happy at this production.

''The Pirates of Penzance'' was reviewed in dress rehearsal, at the company's request. It will be performed Friday and Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Norton Hall, on the Grounds of Chautauqua Institution.