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If you find that Debbie Yuen is treating this year's production like a burlesque of melodrama, you can find her justification in the description above, from opening night programs. Gilbert's idea of having a band of pirates in his opera supposedly originated from his own kidnapping as a child by brigands near Naples. But the popularity of melodrama, with swashbuckling seamen, seemed as likely a reason for switching from his apparent original intention to feature cops and robbers (the cops remained), even if it meant borrowing a Pirate King from his opera "Our Island Home" of 1870.
But another clue to the true nature of the show lies in the subtitle. (A popular trivia exercise is to try to match G. and S. subtitles to their main counterpart.) On his manuscript copy, Gilbert has written "A Sense of Duty." The Paignton posters, however, have "Love and Duty." Eventually "The Slave of Duty" became the final choice. Common to all three is that most admirable heroic British quality: loyalty. But what does Gilbert do with this concept?
Frederic feels a sense of duty to his fellow-pirates, even though he became a member of their band by accident. When confronted with the terms of his agreement in Act 2, he rejoins them and feels obliged to reveal the Major-General's lie about being an orphan ("More than that, he never was one!"). But behind the traumatic decisions he must make lurk a bevy of ridiculous suppositions. How could a hearing problem cause Ruth to bind Frederic to become a pirate instead of a pilot? Wouldn't his parents have something to say about that? And since when is pirating a profession requiring an indentured apprenticeship?
Throughout this topsy-turvy melodrama there are other silly situations. The uncouth pirates enjoy sherry! And by the tankful! Frederic reveals his revulsion for their style of life, and all they do is urge him to make their deaths as painless as possible when he wreaks his revenge. This is in keeping with their lack of success in piracy because of their tender-hearted treatment of orphans. By singular coincidence, they are all orphans themselves. The Major-General feels remorse for shaming his entombed ancestors through his lying. When reminded that he has just bought the mansion, he replies that he doesn't know whose ancestors they were, but he knows whose ancestors they are, by purchase! Frederic rejoins the pirates because, as a Leap Year baby, he has not reached his 21st birthday, as required by his contract. And all Mabel can say, when he tells her he will be free in 1940 is, "It seems so long." In the finale, the victorious pirates surrender when Queen Victoria's name is invoked, and then turn out to be members of the House of Lords who have somehow strayed.
Finally, consider the closing scene with the Major-General singing poetic tributes to the breeze while the pirates and police join in refrain from their hiding places and you will have discovered the G. and S. formula for success: to treat a thoroughly ridiculous subject in a thoroughly serious manner.
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