By Daniel Buckwalter

It begins with soft, tender music conducted by Andrew Bisantz in the orchestra pit, and slowly accelerates to a more bouncy cadence.

All of it is a prelude to the choppy seas of madcap comedy that are soon on the way, and Eugene Opera didn’t disappoint on Oct. 3’s opening night of a two-performance production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance in front of an adoring audience in the Hult Center’s Silva Concert Hall.

If you missed Friday’s performance, be sure to see Eugene Opera at work again at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct.5.  Pirates is pure escapism that, frankly, we probably all can use right now. With sharp acting and wonderful singing, it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

And it is a large production, from the sets to the cast — not to mention the dense libretto of the operetta itself — which meant that artistic director Bisantz, who director Curt Olds, and Eugene Opera’s chorus master Naomi Castro had their hands full in the weeks leading up to the production, but everything went off without a hitch.

Set in Victorian-era England, the large cast of characters of The Pirates of Penzance includes Major-General Stanley (performed by David Macaluso) and his many daughters, among them Kate (Alyse Jamieson), Edith (Brooke Cagno), Isabel (Anne Ferguson) and Mabel (Véronique Filloux).

They all adore their father, who is an old man in The Pirates of Penzance, and I salute him for his vibrant early years. Also, he has become realistic about his daughters in his old age, calling them early in Act II, “easily-diluted violets.”

It is daughter Mabel who has her romantic eyes trained on a young sailor Frederic (Derrek Stark), who is serving an indenture to the Pirate King (Bill Hulings) until he turns 21 and can take his leave of pirate life, and who takes his pledge very seriously.

The plot thickens significantly when the Pirate King denies Frederic’s end to indenture, pointing out that the young man was born on Feb. 29 — a date that occurs only every four years — and therefore must serve another 63 years of servitude to reach his 21st “birth day” throwing his romantic plans into chaos.

Another major character is Ruth (Victoria Livengood), who has lived most of her life among the pirates as a “maid-of-all-work.” The entire plot eventually revolves around her, because as Frederic’s childhood nursemaid, when he was 8 years old his father asked Ruth to indenture his son to a “pilot,” being hard-of-hearing she indentured him to the “pirate” and then in penance stayed with the pirates herself for the next 13 years to watch over him, although becoming a swashbuckling buccaneer — with a commanding voice in her own right — during those years.  

This development is described as the “ingenious paradox” that drives the plot of the entire opera, including Mabel’s promise to wait for Frederic during the entire length of his indenture should it be necessary.

But all’s well that ends well, as is usual with Gilbert and Sullivan. 

If you attend Sunday’s matinee performance of The Pirates of Penzance, be sure to pay attention to the Sergeant of Police (Craig Phillips), who leads a comedic rag-tag collection of constables in Act II to confront the pirates and rid the English coast of this menace once and for all.

That doesn’t go well until the Sergeant of Police urges the pirates to yield “in Queen Victoria’s name.” Bound by “duty” (duty and orphan are two words you hear often in Pirates), the marauders yield, and Ruth speaks the truth about the pirates. She even finds true love at the end.

Eugene Opera’s production of The Pirates of Penzance is delightfully fun. Indeed, I sat next to an older woman and her granddaughter, and they were laughing throughout. I encourage you to see Sunday’s matinee.

The Pirates of Penzance at Eugene Opera

(Special note: The Pirates of Penzance is sung in English, and the lyrics will be projected above the stage.)

When: 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025

Where: Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Center (Sixth and Willamette streets in Eugene)

Tickets: $36/$52/$68/$84 (youth tickets $10 for ages 12 years and younger), available online at hultcenter.org or eugeneopera.org or through the Hult Center box office, 541-682-5000

Details: Run time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, including a 2o-minute intermission