The Pirates of Penzance

Brent Carver stars as the swashbuckling Pirate King in the famous Stratford Festivals rollicking production of the Gilbert Sullivan classic that pits British bobbles against unlikely pirates on the Cornish coast Sullivan regarded this operetta a hit ever since its first production in New York in 1879 as the best comedy he composed He even said of his collaborator The libretto is ingenious clever wonderfully fun in parts and sometimes brilliant in dialogue beautifully written for music as is all Gilbert does Indeed audiences will find the music every bit a match for the lyrics with the genius of the score lying in its parody of grand opera Filmed in 1985 at the worldfamous Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford Ontario