Music Notes for PIRATES OF PENZANCE

I know that you are as excited about the upcoming G&S Festival as David and I are and that you are champing at the bit to get things underway. I know I speak for both of us when I say that we have absolute confidence in the cast’s ability to prepare. David has some very exciting plans and it looks as if we’ll have another great performance.

My approach to the music is based on the trust I have in the cast’s ability to learn their parts and perform them honestly. I work very quickly and like to get things ready for the director so that he can apply his vision of the performance without having to trip over the music!

A couple of things you should keep in mind:

The words are everything and for the opera to make any sense at all, the words MUST be understood. To that end, your diction must be very precise with the hard consonants propelling the vowels to the upper reaches of the opera house. I will always insist on MORE consonants, so you might as well start working on them right now!
Prepare to be flexible. Use David Cookson’s fine MIDI files to learn your part but remember that the tempi will be adjusted according to the overall scheme of the production. David Duffey has some specific musical requirements for production numbers and so our tempi will have to be very precise. It is very important that we get the music down quickly so that David has as much time as possible to hone the onstage actions.
Most important is that we all have fun doing this! We have a lot of work to do in a very short period but given last year’s marvelous production, I have every confidence that PIRATES will be another great success.

I am using a Chappell edition and all of my remarks are referenced to this. For clarity, especially if you are using an edition other than Chappell’s, please number the bars of each section in your score. The easiest way to do it is to number each fifth bar (5, 10, 15, etc.). Where there is a letter indication, I’ll indicate the bar where the letter occurs. When we gather at Buxton for the first rehearsal, this will make it much easier to keep track of where we are! And please: bring pencils to all rehearsals!

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