Editing The Pirates of Penzance (section)

==Versions==
[[File:pirates of penzance restoration.jpg|thumb|200px|right|1880 poster]]
Because the work was premiered in three different places (the Paignton performance and the full productions in New York and London), there are more variations in the early libretto and score of ''The Pirates of Penzance'' than in other Gilbert and Sullivan works. Songs sent from New York to the D'Oyly Carte touring company in England for the Paignton premiere were then altered or omitted during Broadway rehearsals. Gilbert and Sullivan trimmed the work for the London premiere, and Gilbert made further alterations up to and including the 1908 Savoy revival. For example, early versions depicted the Pirate King as the servant of the pirate band,<ref name=brad>Bradley (1982) pp. 90–159</ref> and the words of the opening chorus were, "Pour, O King, the pirate sherry".<ref>Anderson W. R., Changes in the "Pirates". ''Gramophone'', June 1950, p. 14</ref> In the original New York production the revelation by Ruth that the pirates are "all noblemen who have gone wrong" prompted the following exchange (recalling a famous passage in ''[[H.M.S. Pinafore]]''):
{|
|-
|GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS:||What, all noblemen?
|-
|KING & PIRATES:||Yes, ''all'' noblemen!
|-
|GENERAL, POLICE & GIRLS:||What, all?
|-
|KING:||Well, nearly all!
|}
{|
|-
|valign=top|ALL:
| . . . They are nearly all noblemen who have gone wrong.
:Then give three cheers, both loud and strong,
:For the twenty noblemen who have gone wrong....
|}

In the original London production, this exchange was shortened to the following:
{|
|-
|GIRLS:||Oh spare them! They are all noblemen who have gone wrong.
|-
|GENERAL:||What, all noblemen?
|-
|KING:||Yes, ''all'' noblemen!
|-
|GENERAL:||What, all?
|-
|KING:||Well, nearly all!
|}

Gilbert deleted the exchange in the 1900 revival, and the [[Chappell & Co.|Chappell]] vocal score was revised accordingly. For the 1908 revival Gilbert had the pirates yielding "in good King Edward's name".<ref name=brad/> Despite [[Helen Carte]]'s repeated urging, Gilbert did not prepare an authorised version of the libretti of the [[Savoy opera]]s.<ref>Bradley (1982), p. 7</ref>

In its 1989 production, the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]] restored one of the original versions of the finale, which finishes with a variation of "I am the very model of a modern major-general", rather than with the customary reprise of "Poor wand'ring one",<ref>See Bradley (1982), pp. 158–159</ref> but in later revivals, it reverted to the more familiar text.<ref name=rodders/>