Praise for The Pirates of Penzance

 

Reginald Smith Jr. (The Pirate King, center) with members of the Seattle Opera Chorus in The Pirates of Penzance. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Audiences are raving about The Pirates of Penzance! Seattle Opera's first-ever Gilbert & Sullivan production, this topsy-turvy tale is a swashbuckling good time for the whole family. Read what critics have to say about this bright, colorful show and don't miss your chance to catch The Pirates of Penzance at McCaw Hall, now through November 1. Tickets and info at seattleopera.org/pirates.

The production itself is a delight. [...] Director/choreographer Seán Curran’s beautiful stage pictures and boisterous physical gags helped the script’s comedy feel fresh as ever. —The Seattle Times

Sweet tunes, dancing, patter songs and really funny jokes and really fresh rhymes [...] a perfect bon-bon of music all evening long. —British Theatre Guide

Vanessa Becerra as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Best of all was soprano Vanessa Becerra, in fine voice as Mabel, one of the Major General’s many daughters. Kudos as well to choreographer Seán Curran and lighting designer Robert Wierzel. —Forking Seattle

The performances by the Pirate King, Frederic, Ruth, and the Sergeant Major-General were absolutely hysterical, full of charm and comic timing. And the choreography? Fabulous! You don’t often see that much footwork in opera — unless someone’s tripping over a cape. —Out NW 

 

Tess Altiveros (Edith), Erica Convery (Kate), and Elizabeth Peterson (Isabel) with members of the Seattle Opera Chorus in The Pirates of Penzance at Seattle Opera. Photo: David Jaewon Oh.

With first-class singers and brilliant staging, this English-language comedy about a pirate’s apprentice is the perfect blend of humor and song. [...] You laugh all the way through, even as the orchestra and singers produce music as beautiful as the operettas of Offenbach or the waltzes of Strauss. —SGN

Seattle Opera’s current production of The Pirates of Penzance (1879) enchanted Sunday’s matinee audience from its opening bars. This is the first of the Victorian “Savoy Operas” ever to be staged by the company, and it fills a void left by the now-dormant Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society. […] The current SO production makes a good argument for including English operettas in its repertoire going forward. —Post Alley