It's been years since I've listened to this play or seen it on stage, but I do remember loving it. But, come on... PIRATES! ( )

I've never seen The Pirates of Penzance performed so I tried reading the dialogue (listened via the LibriVox David Wales edition). What a strange experience arriving at it this way since the dialogue is often clever turns of phrase and dependent on the music and acting to achieve its effect. Without any context I followed the story but it meant little. Only after finishing did I watch some scenes performed on YouTube and realized there is much more to it. The music is classic and the performances make it come alive. On the other hand the dialogue is difficult to follow live, so I returned to the script to catch all the cleverness. Early on, with the mistake between "Pirate" and "Pilot", the play informs this is a story about language. However I noticed the modern performances on YouTube have changed the 1879 dialogue and developed their own simplified version, emphasizing story and character, which is helpful to understanding what is happening but the original script is different, weirder, perhaps better. ( )

This version of The Pirates Of Penzance, Or The Slave Of Duty is a delightful dramatic reading made available by LibriVox. ( )

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