City News

The Carl Rosa Company returns with a national and international tour of its acclaimed production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s hugely popular show, The Pirates of Penzance which will visit Birmingham Hippodrome for one week only from Monday 18 – Saturday 23 September 2006.

With West End star Rosemary Ashe (the original Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera) in the role of Ruth, this revived production features stunning new period costumes and new staging designs.

Written in 1879, The Pirates of Penzance is one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s greatest comic operas. With magnificent send-ups of grand opera, it presents a topsy turvy plot involving a band of orphaned pirates (distinctly deficient in cut-throatedness); a Major General who doesn't know his rifles from his javelins; the flat-footed Cornish Constabulary; a bevy of blushing maidens; and the dashing Frederic, who - born on a leap year - may be aged twenty-one, or only "five and a little bit over".

Now 127 years since its premiere, The Pirates of Penzance remains a hugely popular favourite, with familiar songs such as the patter-song ‘I am the very model of a Modern Major General’ and ‘A Policeman’s lot is not a happy one’. WS Gilbert’s satirical caricature of the Major General whose commission was bought rather than earned on the battlefield, sparks a pertinent parallel with today’s corrupt politics and the cash for peerages scandals.

With Rosemary Ashe as ‘Ruth’, the company reunites some of Britain’s leading Gilbert & Sullivan principals, including: Barry Clark (Major General Stanley), Stephen Page (Pirate King), and Bruce Graham (Sergeant of Police), with David Curry (Frederic), Kevin Kyle (Samuel), Charlotte Page (Mabel), and Lesley Cox (Kate). Directed and designed by Peter Mulloy, with Lighting Design by Emma Banwell, Choreography by Steve Elias. The Carl Rosa Orchestra, is conducted by Martin Handley.

The Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company was established in 1873 and closed in 1960. In 1997 Peter Mulloy together with Musical Director Wyn Davies, relaunched the Carl Rosa Company, as a touring light opera company. Over the past nine years the company has built a high international reputation for its authentic, ‘traditional style’ productions. Since the demise of the D’Oyly Carte, the company has become Britain’s only professional touring company dedicated to keeping the heritage of Gilbert & Sullivan alive. It continues to successfully produce high quality touring productions throughout the world, without the aid of sponsorship or funding. This new production of The Pirates of Penzance follows previous national and international tours of The Mikado, HMS Pinafore, The Merry Widow, Iolanthe, Yeomen of the Guard, The Gondoliers, and Die Fledermaus.

The Pirates of Penzance opens at Birmingham Hippodrome on Monday 18 September and runs until Saturday 23 September 2006. Tickets are priced £11.00-£28.00 and can be purchased from Ticket Sales on 0870 730 1234. Groups 0870 730 4321 or online www.birminghamhippodrome.com. Booking fees apply. Perf times: Eves 7.30pm; Wed mat 2pm; Sat mat 2.30pm.