This year we chose two of the most popular operas from the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival programme at the Buxton Opera House.
Our first performance was a matinée of The Pirates of Penzance, performed by the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and played to a packed house. The performance was filled with razor-sharp wit, unforgettable melodies and playful satire.
I've seen Pirates dozens of times, but it never disappoints. The story follows Frederic, who was mistakenly apprenticed to a band of tender-hearted pirates as a boy. On reaching his twenty-first birthday, he eagerly prepares to abandon piracy and live an honest life. His plans seem complete when he falls in love with Mabel, the spirited daughter of the wonderfully pompous Major-General Stanley.
But Frederic soon discovers a disastrous loophole: born on 29th February in a leap year, he must serve until his twenty-first birthday, not his twenty-first year. The result is a whirlwind of comic confusion, absurd logic and brilliant music — including the famous Modern Major-General song
Simon Butteriss – the very model of a modern comic baritone in Gilbert and Sullivan - plays the wonderful Modern Major General. He rattles off his patter songs with all the alacrity of long experience and lends the character suitably doddery charm.
All in all we spent a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, and left looking forward to the evening's performance of The Mikado.