Review of The Pirates of Penzance

It was in high school when I first saw the Pirates of Penzance. But it was performed by high school students who were, as a whole, unexperienced in the medium of musical theater. Some of them could sing, some of them could act, but not all of them could do both. (It was also kind of hard to make out what they were saying). So naturally, I didn't enjoy the performance all that much. Years later, in the present day, I rediscovered this opera after seeing a college production of The Mikado which sparked my now dominant interest in Gilbert & Sullivan. When I bought this video, I had no idea what was in store. For almost two hours, I was glued to the television and afterwards I could only utter a single word: "Wow". The performers are exactly as I picture them whenever I listen to the soundtrack. One stand-out in the cast is Keith Mitchell in the role of the Major General. He came right in and executed that famous patter song, "I am the very model of a modern major general," with absolute gusto and expression. The only real complaint I had with this video is that one man in the gentlemen's chorus was noticibly flat, which didn't make the policemen's song, "when a foeman bares his steel," as enjoyable. Other than that, the opera was perfectly cast, each performer giving a very solid performance.