Pirates, not serious
Munich, 19 January 2025 Sometimes, especially in troubling troubled times like these, one needs a night out of utter fun and entertainment, and the new production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Munich Gärtnerplatztheater provides an ample dose of both.
One regrets a bit the choice of presenting a German translation of the piece - reading the surtitles one realises that part of the text’s whit has been lost in translation. The exuberant vivacity of Adam Cooper’s staging, the dedication and the Spielfreude of the wonderful cast, without mentioning their lovely voices and great singing, make up for this small loss. They compense also the absurdity of the plot that is nothing more than an excuse for a series of gags and jokes poking fun at authorities, nobilities, snobbism and romanticism in all of their forms:
By an absurd mistake of his nurse, young Frederic, sung by Matteo Rašić who is all tenderness, vocally as well as of person, has been apprenticed to a pirate instead of a pilot. During the overture we watch his arrival at the pirate ship and his first encounter with the pirate king Richard and his second, Samuel, and we understand at once that these pirates are rather tame and not exactly bloodthirsty. The stage direction and design, as well as some costumes, are inspired by several decades of pop culture, and we decidedly feel a Caribbean air around these pirates. The story sets in with Frederic’s 21st birthday: on this day, his contract ends, he is free to go and he sets out in search of a new life as a law-abiding citizen. On a beach, he meets a group of charming young women, orphans and wards of an elderly Major-General. Birte Wallbaum, designer of the lovely costumes, has dressed the ladies of the theater’s choir all in gowns of blue and ivory that look like a kind of uniform and yet are all completely different; the Major General (Alexander Franzen sings the tongue-twisting enumeration of his academic achievements quite admirably) in a golden uniform with a crow’s nest of grey hair is ridiculous as can be. Love at first sight for Frederic and one of the young ladies, Mabel, sung by Julia Sturzlbaum with a sweet yet strong soprano. Love at first sight also for the other pirates and girls who want to get married at once. The pirates consist mostly of their king - most impressive: Daniel Gutmann whose strong stage presence and voice are just as admirable as his stuntman skills, he dances, fights, climbs ropes and turns somersaults most naturally - and his mate, interpreted with fugue by Peter Neustifter. Three dancers add even more drive to the action, vocally supported by the men’s choir of the theater. The Major-General is against the marriage of his wards and the pirates, and since he pretends to be an orphan the pirates cannot simply kill him, they don’t hurt an orphan. The plan falls through and so does the curtain.
Act II sees Frederic at the Major-General’s manor getting ready to attack the pirates with the help of a company of policemen. We had to laugh out loud at their entrance: Holger Ohlmann, their sergeant, comes disguised as John Cleese and the whole company does a Silly Walk. But the bass voices are amazing! Whilst these heroes hesitate, the pirates reclaim Frederic as theirs: he might be 21 years old, he was born on a 29th February and hence has celebrated only his fourth birthday, whereas the contract stipulates that he will be free on his 21st birthday. A touching scene with Mabel follows, who promises to wait for him for 63 years. Frederic goes back to the pirates. His sense of duty motivates him to tell the pirates that the Major-General is not an orphan at all. The pirates call for revenge and attack the house of the old soldier in order to abduct their fiancees, everything seems lost and a blood-bath unavoidable, when the Major-General plays his final card: at the mention of The Queen all the pirates take a knee, and at the appearance of Her Majesty herself the turn out to be not only loyal subjects, but a bunch of young Lords, adventurous, but not really bad. A cannon shot closes the show after this coup de theatre.
The staging, the beautiful scenery by Karl Fehringer and Judith Leikauf, the stage action, all this would not exist without the music. Arthur Sullivan paraphrases and parodies joyfully his contemporaries, we can hear allusions to Verdi, Wagner, Schumann and even Mendelssohn, being all the while perfectly original. At the head of the Orchestra of the Gärtnerplatztheater, Andreas Partilla lays out the base for the action onstage with vivacity and discretion.
Everything comes together, everything fits and we did have lots of fun indeed.
Bravo tutti, we will be back!