The Pirates of Penzance Trivia

1. In which Gilbert and Sullivan opera did the song "A Modern Major-General" appear?

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: The Pirates of Penzance

Composers W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan created some memorable operatic pieces between 1871 and 1896. Perhaps the most beloved of their operas is "The Pirates of Penzance", which made its theatrical debut in 1879. Major-General Stanley is one of the most famous characters in "Pirates." In the song "A Modern Major-General", Stanley tried to impress upon his audience (his daughters and some kind-hearted pirates) his "extensive" military knowledge. The major-general sang in rapid-fire style that he knew lots of information- most of it totally useless for a military officer.

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: a cup filled to the brim

A "bumper" was a cup or glass filled for a toast. The operetta begins "Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry. Fill, O fill the pirate glass, and, to make us more than merry, Let the pirate bumper pass!" Party time!

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: February 28 or March 1, 1873

Yes, the show begins on February 29, 1873. You can discover this through a "simple mathematical process." We know (from his conversation with Mabel after he learns that his indenture has not yet finished) that Frederic won't be out of his indentures until 1940 because he was born in leap year. That means he would have celebrated 21 birthdays, which would take 84 years (21 times 4) plus another 4 years for the fact that 1900 was not a leap year. Subtract 88 from the year 1940 and you get 1852. Since he thinks he's out of his indentures as of the start of the show (his birthday), the show must begin on February 28 (or possibly March 1), 1873!

From Quiz Pirates Mania

Answer: Mr D'Oyly Carte's Company

Richard D'Oyly Carte formed a new partnership with William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan following problems with the directors of "The Comedy Opera Company" over "HMS Pinafore" which opened in 1878. Further productions were billed under the name "Mr D'Oyly Carte's Company" The name was finally changed to "The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company" in 1889. This was after "The Pirates of Penzance" first opened.

From Quiz The Pirates of Penzance

Answer: Sherry

'Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; Fill, oh, fill the pirate glass.'

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: Mineral

Major-General Stanley told his audience that he had a lot of information "vegetable, animal, and mineral." Unfortunately, most of this information was irrelevant to what military leaders would need on the battlefield. The chorus answered Stanley's boasts by singing these words: "In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral He is the very model of a modern major-general..."

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: separating a ship from a convoy

When Frederick announces his intention to leave the pirate band, the King tells him: "But this is quite unaccountable; a keener hand at scuttling a Cunarder or cutting out a White Star never shipped a handspike." Cutting out a White Star would have meant separating a passenger ship of the White Star Line from surrounding ships in order to board and plunder her. The original British libretto has "P & O" where American versions were changed to "White Star".

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: 1825 or 1826

We know that Ruth is 47 ("No, I shall find you a wife of 47, and that is quite enough!"). Since we know the play begins in February 1873, Ruth would have to have been born in 1825 or 1826.

From Quiz Pirates Mania

Answer: 30th December 1879, Bijou Theatre, Paignton

Following pirating problems of "HMS Pinafore" in 1878 Richard D'Oyly Carte and his partners William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan decided to have a single performance of the next opera in England to ensure English copyright. It was this reason "The Pirates of Penzance" was performed at the Bijou Theatre in Paignton the day before it was to open in New York at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. This single English Performance ran the same night as "HMS Pinafore" at the Opera-Comique.

From Quiz The Pirates of Penzance

Answer: Pilot

'I bound him to a pirate - you - instead of to a pilot'.

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: he positions the lever to raise the anchor

The process of winding old rope around a cable, with a small interval between the turns, saves the cable from chafing against the hull, and is called keckling. Belaying is tying and securing a rope. 'Carving a nog' is fashioning a wooden pin used in ship repair.

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: 11:30am

The pirates sing their opening song ("Pour, O Pour the Pirate Sherry") and Frederic and the pirates talk for a bit. When Frederic says that he shouldn't tell the pirates why they don't make piracy pay, the Pirate King says "Why not? It's only half-past eleven. And you're one of us till the clock strikes twelve!" We can assume it's not close to midnight, because soon after we see the Stanley girls on the beach.

From Quiz Pirates Mania

Answer: Pilot

"To take and bind the promising boy Apprentice to a pilot". Sadly Ruth being "Hard of Hearing" she misunderstood and thus apprenticed him to a pirate! "A sad mistake it was to make, And doom him to a vile lot." (Act 1, second song "When Fred'ric was a Little Lad")

From Quiz The Pirates of Penzance

Answer: 47

'My love unabating, Has been accumulating, Forty-seven year - forty-seven year!'

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: Calculus

The major-general claimed to know everything about calculus in "A Modern Major-General." Stanley also bragged about his knowledge of "equations" and "binomial theorem." Stanley sang these words: "I'm very good at integral and differential calculus I know the scientific names of beings animalculous..."

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: a government patrol

Custom House were the customs enforcement patrol. Usually located near seaports, they were responsible for collecting tarrifs on imported goods. Frederick asks: "Who has ventured to approach our all but inaccessible lair? Can it be Custom House? No, it does not sound like Custom House."

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: Dresses

One of the daughters suggests removing shoes and stockings while sitting on the beach. They don't get so far as actually removing anything because Frederic reveals himself to them.

From Quiz The Pirates of Penzance

Answer: He is shocked by what they are about to do

The girls are about to take off their shoes and stockings and paddle! ('Yes, yes, the very thing!') Frederic emerges to inform them that 'Under these peculiar circumstances, it is my bounden duty to inform you that your proceedings will not be unwitnessed!'

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: King Arthur

Major-General Stanley told his audience that he knew about England's "mythic history, "King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's." According to legend, King Arthur was an English leader in the sixth century who fought against Saxon invaders. Sir Caradoc was supposedly a member of the Knights of the Round Table.

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: a barometer

"The glass is rising very high" is a reference to a weather-glass or barometer. A rising glass would be an indication of high atmospheric pressure, resulting in fair weather. The girls sing this weather ditty which sticks in your head: "How beautifully blue the sky, The glass is rising very high, Continue fine I hope it may, And yet it rained but yesterday. To-morrow it may pour again (I hear the country wants some rain), Yet people say, I know not why, That we shall have a warm July."

From Quiz Pirates Mania

Answer: strayed, one

This is Mabel's first Air for the Opera. Mabel is singing of her duty to give Frederic her heart to satisfy his needs. "If such poor love as mine, can help thee find, true piece of mind, why take it it is thine." (Act 1, eighth song "Poor Wand'ring One") Frederic has never seen a female other then Ruth and he is therefore blown away by the beauty of Major-General Stanley's daughters. Mabel enjoys the beauty of Frederic, but the other girls believe he is vile, as he is dressed as a pirate.

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: An emperor

Heliogabalus, a "boy king", was the Roman emperor from 218 to 222. Heliogabalus was only 14 years old when he took power, and he angered many of his elders during his short reign. Heliogabalus married five different women and often engaged in lewd behavior. Some historians claim that this young emperor was also involved in murder. In the song, the major-general sang these words: "I quote in elegiac all the crimes of Heliogabalus In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous..."

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: a travelling band

Originally from Persian for 'a stopping off place for traveling merchants', the word came to be used for anyone engaged in long distance travel. When pronounced "caravansery", it makes the rhyme with "Wards in Chancery", a reference to the Major-General's daughters.

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: impunity

"And indulge in the felicity of unbounded domesticity." Gilbert and Sullivan surely had a way with words!

From Quiz Pirates Mania

Answer: 29th February

Frederic was born in a leap year. This is not discovered until Act Two in the fourth song, "Now for the Pirates Lair!". In this song the Pirate King tells Frederic that he is "The victim of this clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap-year, on the twenty-ninth day of Feburary, And so, by a simple arithmetical process, you'll easily discover, That tho' you've lived twenty-one years, if we go by birthdays, you're only five and a little bit". This information bears with it the knowledge that Frederic will not finish being bound to the pirates until the year 1940.

From Quiz The Pirates of Penzance

Answer: He was an orphan

Of course, although he begged them to "Have pity on my lonely state, I am an orphan boy!", he was "telling a terrible story".

From Quiz A Modern Major-General

Answer: H.M.S. Pinafore

Major-General Stanley poked fun of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "H.M.S. Pinafore" in the second verse of "A Modern Major-General." Stanley sang these words: "Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense PINAFORE..." The 1878 opera " H.M.S. Pinafore" was a satirical masterpiece which poked fun at the British Navy and party politics, among other subjects. "Iolanthe" made its debut in 1882, "Princess Ida" appeared in 1884, and "The Yeomen of the Guard" opened in 1888.

From Quiz "Pirates" in Translation

Answer: they are foster children

Major-General Stanley's "daughters" are all minors under the protection of the Court of Chancery - a court set up within the English legal framework to adjudicate primarily civil matters.

From Quiz "Penzance" for Pros

Answer: categorical

One of the greatest "patter" songs in the Gilbert and Sullivan library, in my honest opinion. If you've heard the recording starring Kevin Kline, Rex Smith, and Linda Ronstadt, the Major-General (played by George Rose) does an excellent "encore" of the song in double-time. It's truly amazing to hear.

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Last Updated Apr 13 2024 5:48 AM

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