Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-02-21
THE OPERA.

SCAy AotuIdaAy 0uO pIOUOCtAOu VI d ucW L
work by Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan was
hailed with vast amount of popular in
terest, and the first query that was likely |
to suggest itself to the average mind Oh the |
announcement that they had given new
opera to the public, was, SIS it as good as |
'Pinafore -" To satisfy themselves upon
this point an audience that almost filled |
the lower part of Fulton opera house as
sembled last evening to witness the
initial production of 1.-The Pirates
of Penzance by a company organized
by Mr.. D'Oyly Carte, the business mana
ager of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan, and
under their express direction and authority.
These gentlemen, profiting by their expert
ence with their earlier work, have reserved
all rights for the production of ''The Pi-
rates. in this country, and will be likely by
this course to reimburse themselves for the
comparatively meagre pecuniary return
that the voyage of the "Pinafore
brought them, owing to the piratical pro-
clivities of the modern American manager.
The conclusion forced upon the unbiased
spectator and auditor of last nights pre-
sentation of the new opera is, despite the
claims that have been made for it in the
metropolitan press, that it is never going
to attain that peculiar popularity that
made ''Pinafore famous. At the
same time we are free to admit that the
possibilities of the work, neither in it's
music nor its humor, were fully developed
in last nights performance. The libretto
Of "The Pirates of Penzance is irresisti-
bly, funny, but withal its humor does not
seem to be Of the spontaneous character
that distinguished its predecessor. By far
the greater portion of last nights audi
ence, in all probability, laughed more after
they got home and thought the matter
over than they did while witnessing the
absurd scenes being enacted before their
eyes while this could not truthfully have
been said Of ''PinafOre, which convulsed
the average audience with mcrriment dur
ing it's progress. The satire of "The
Pirates" is subtler, the humor deeper, and
it was exasperating to observe that
many of the brightest points with which
the new opera sparkles from beginning to
end appeared to be unnoticed by the audi
ence, who were, hOwever-by way of illus
tration-not slow to catch the point of a
neatly carried out pun on orphan and
"Often," which they accorded the commen-
dation denied to many..far worthier COM
panions.
Looking ut the new opera from a
standpoint regarding its merits Us musi-
| cal composition, it is at once seen that the
numbers will never become as popular
| with the 'masses - rs the bright, ear-tak-
ing tunes OF ''that internal nonsense
PinafOre,' as one of the characters last
night described it. Why, day after the
little nautical opera had it's first produc-
tion every gamin in the street was
whistling the 'Buttercup" song with a
gusto calculated to astonish the composer :;
while there is not the slightest reason to
believe that our ears will be saluted with
the youngsters shrill and piercing notes in
the policemen's chorus, which met with
such IN enthusiastic reception last night.
The music is bright and pretty, the
"Hymn to Poetry" and the ode to the
''evening breeze,' and the love duet, with
the weather chorus accompaniment,
and half a score of others that might be
named, being notably beautiful; and
though not so "catchy" as the Pima
FORE airs, there is no questioning the
much higher order of the music Mr.. Sui
livan has given broader treatment
to the score, and the orchestration is at
many points of a quality that would do no
discredit to grand opera. While it pleases
the ear, it skillfully avoids the effort to re-
tain it in the memory long enough to be
able to give it an exact reproduction. One
may hear the opera the first time without
being Immediately seized with a burning
desire to have performance of it in ones
own parlor and by ones own particular
"set"
| Much ofthe humor Of the piece is in Gil
bert's widest and most extravagant vein.
Nothing happens that could possibly have
occurred in actual life, and yet it is all as
coherent as though it were true, like some
ridiculous dream, which doesn't seem a
bit ridiculous while you are dreaming it.
The very title shows the boldness of its alb
surdities the ''pirates, who are declared
by their king in his opening solo to be the
"mildest-mannered men that ever cut a
throat or scuttlcd a ship" being
supposed to have their lair in one of the
pretty towns on the west of England coast,
where Major General Stanleg and the
British army are quartered. This latter
parsonage is a sort of army dupli-
cate of Sir Joseph Porter, and one
of the funniest things in the opera is
the song in which he shows himself to pos
sess every kind of knowledge except that
| which is necessary to the fulfillment of
| the duties of his position. This is what is
technically known as "patter" song,
that is, song in which the words must be
spoken with inconceivable rapidity and
| distinctness. How difficult the words are
to enunciste in this manner may be gather
ed from the following verso:
know our mythic history, King Arthur's and
1 answer hard acrosties, I've pretty taste for
1 quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Hclioga-
baluS
| In comics, can floor peculiaritics parabolus.
1 can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard
Dows and Zoffan1es,
know the croaking chorus from the Frogs"
of AristOphanes
Then can hum fugue of which I've heard
the muSic'S din afOre,
And whistle all the airs from that internal
l can write you out a washing bill in Babylonic
And tell you all the details of Caractacus's uni
In sbort in ,po,tars yeoot,b,a ,,;,,., aud