Pirates of Penzance September 2, 2006

'Pirates of Penzance' tells the story of Frederic, who while still a child, is apprenticed to a band of tenderhearted, orphaned pirates by his nurse. Being hard of hearing, the nurse had mistaken her master's instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot. When Frederic turns 21 he rejoices, believing that he has fulfilled his indentures and is now free to return to society. But as it turns out, he was born on February 29 in a leap year, and he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st "birthday." By the end of the opera, the pirates, a Major General who knows nothing of military strategy, his large family of beautiful but unwed daughters and the timid constabulary all contribute to a dissonance that can be silenced only by Queen Victoria's name.