Customer Reviews

The Pirates of Penzance or the Slave of Duty

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once again Dover has managed to produce a Piano Vocal score which is a major improvement over the existing editions. While I can't speak for the Scholarly content, and while it doesn't claim to be a "critical edition", it does EXACTLY what a performer wants in a piano vocal score. It is clear and readable and has the words as well as the music. It is also clearly market with measure numbers at the start of each staff and has clear and well marked Major Measure markers throughout. In sum, if you are looking to perform the work, this is the edition to get.

(And if you need a Full Score, the Dover full score is also a very good deal).

We're staging a production of "Pirates" in April 2002, and we have two editions of this score by G. Schirmer. The cheaper one is for the chorus, and has just the choral passages. The more expensive one (listed here) has the complete vocal music and dialogue.

I have seen both, and would rate them at five stars except that the original page plates are a little dirty, introducing some confusing dots and spots.

I'm not sure what an earlier reviewer is saying about this score not having the solo stuff. This book has the complete score and dialoge. I've used it for two productions of POP and it is missing nothing.
Unless this is a different edition than the one I have..but it has the exact same cover and credits so I doubt it.

Be aware that this book does not have a single musical note in it! I ordered 30 copies for a production I am directing and when the book came, it is only the dialogue and the lyrics to the music. You can download that much from the internet! I don't know why the other reviewers talk about it being a vocal score. It has no music in it. If you want to get a vocal score, this is not your ticket. Besides, this book is a copy of another book. Amazon says the book is 48 pages long, but the script is only 20 pages and the other pages are blank. I am sending this back and getting the Shirmer edition.

Just so you know before you buy, this is only the chorus book. It includes only songs where one of the chorus' (pirates, daughters, or police) is singing. No solos or smaller numbers are included and neither is the script.

I used this score in a production of Pirates at my university, and from the standpoint of a cast member it was excellent. It outlined each part and was easy to read. At any point where scores between production years differ, this handy volume recounts them all with notes as to which part belongs with which year. My only complaints are that it is not ring-bound (regular paperback binding, harder to hold on to/use) and some harmony parts are difficult to pick out because they divide on the page turn and appear at different parts of the page. Other than that, it is a wonderful score and I would recommend it to anyone interested in producing this enchanting operetta.

This is the most accurate Piano/Vocal score for this Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. This does not have "My Eyes are Fully Open..." but that is okay because that should remain in Ruddigore where it was originally meant to be.

The standard version of G&S's "Pirates". Most production companies will use this edition, but I've always thought that it could be improved by including a description of some of the classic stage business that has become attached to it, if only as a benchmark to improve on.

Compared to, say, THe Gondoliers, THe pirates is not a masterpiece. THere is no character one can really sympathise with, and the potshots are a bit too obvious. It was intended as a satire of Victorian types, and works brilliantly at that, but in the end is rather callous. It tells the tale of a typically Victorian gentleman (cousin to Jack Worthing in THe Importance of being earnest?) who is obsessed with doing his duty. 'Duty' - to Queen, Empire, family, propriety etc. - was the major Victorian obsession, and Gilbert lambasts an unswerving devotion to this concept by having a hero so obsessed with doing his duty, that he will rejoin a band of pirates and hand over for execution to them his prospective father-in-law. Parody and pastiche litter the libretto, which is made of many marvellous things - the brooding, wild, Romantic Cornish landscape which oversees a frothy piece of human nonsense; the harridan nurse who persuades her ward that she is comely; the Modern Major general who is one of the most intellectually brilliant men alive, but hopeless incompetent militarily; the callous man-hungry maidens - true Victorians who would rather marry wealth than obey the dictates of duty; the not very terrifying pirates who drink sherry rather than rum, and will only attack ships with more men than them, and never orphans (resulting in the entire British fleet being sailed by the parentless); the valiant police force who are actually terrified of accosting anyone. THe pirates are ex-peers who have tired of the real piracy that is Victorian respectability. THere are some really hilarious songs, and everyone should sing the Major general's song every morning to the mirror, but there are some - the 'serious' ones, which are dreadfully tedious. THe play reads like a more whimsical Wilde - Noel Coward perhaps?

You should read, or watch the musical..