Future Shows

The Pirates of Penzance

October 30 – November 22, 2026

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Pirates of Penzance, for four weekends, from October 30 to November 22, 2026.

This production will be directed by Joe Andrews, with music direction by Dr. Randal Buikema.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is mounting a perennial favorite with a new twist. Transposed to America’s Old West, The Pirates of Penzance maintains its supremely buoyant score, sense of adventure, and improbable paradoxes, but the action plays against the backdrop of the California-Nevada border during the Gold Rush. The pirates are sentimental bandits, the police are sheriffs and deputies, and love and duty win the day, of course!

Frederic, a prairie pirate’s apprentice, falls head-over-heels in love with Mabel, one of many daughters of Major-General Stanley. Frederic is due to be released from his apprenticeship as a prairie pirate on his 21st birthday, but there’s a snag … of course. Although very much in love, his dedication to duty is unshakeable. Can he find a way to live happily-ever-after with Mabel?

Embark on a delightful journey with The Pirates of Penzance, where we unravel the captivating (and modestly adapted) storyline of this timeless comic opera.

The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fifth collaboration, following their extraordinarily successful production of H.M.S. Pinafore. The Pirates of Penzance opened simultaneously in England and America. The opera premiered on December 31, 1879 at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York with Sullivan conducting, but a single performance had been given on the previous day at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, England, to secure the British copyright. Finally, the opera opened on April 3, 1880, at the Opéra Comique in London, where it ran for 363 performances, having already been playing successfully for over three months in New York.

The Grand Duke

February 26 – March 21, 2027

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Grand Duke, for four weekends, from February 26 to March 21, 2027.

This production will be directed by Paul R. Coate, with music direction by Dr. Randal Buikema.

The Grand Duke, Gilbert and Sullivan’s final collaboration, tells the delightful story of a theater company plotting to take political power in the Duchy of Pfennig Halbpfennig. The plot hinges on the misinterpretation of a law regarding “statutory duels,” which are fought with playing cards and result in “legal deaths.” Ludwig, the company’s comedian, spearheads the rebellion against the miserly Grand Duke Rudolph, takes power and, on the way, becomes engaged to four different women. The story features sausage rolls, theater contracts, ghosts, large bottles of champagne and a game or two of roulette!

In The Grand Duke, Gilbert lampoons the frugality and phoniness of the wealthy classes and nobility, while also taking aim at governmental leaders with some particularly pointed political satire. Sullivan’s beautifully varied score includes lilting Viennese waltz music as well as Offenbach inspired French melodies.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is particularly pleased to present its own revised version of The Grand Duke. While this operetta is considered one of the most challenging of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas to stage, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera has presented its revised version three times in the past very successfully, to appreciative audiences who’ve wondered why The Grand Duke is not presented more often. We believe that the audiences for our 2027 production will say the same!

The Gondoliers

October 29 – November 21, 2027

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present The Gondoliers, for four weekends, from October 29 to November 21, 2027.

The Gondoliers tells the story of two just-married Venetian gondoliers who are informed by the Grand Inquisitor that one of them has just become the King of Barataria, but only their nursemaid, presently at large, knows which one. As Barataria needs a king to put down unrest in the country, they must travel there immediately to reign jointly, leaving their wives behind in Venice until the nursemaid can be interviewed. It turns out that the king was wed in infancy to the beautiful daughter of the Spanish Duke of Plaza Toro, and so it seems he is an unintentional bigamist. The beautiful daughter, however, is in love with a common servant! When the young Spaniard and the two Venetian wives all show up in Barataria, at the same time, wanting to know which of them is queen, complications arise. In the end, the true identity of the king is revealed, and all is resolved spectacularly.

Gilbert’s satire focuses on the snobbery of class distinctions, and with the operetta set far away from Great Britain, Gilbert is emboldened to level some harsh criticism regarding the noble class, and the institution of the monarchy itself.

The Gondoliers achieved wide popularity due to its sparkling, Italian and Spanish inspired music and as the operetta that calls for the most dancing.

Princess Ida

March 10 – April 2, 2028

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is pleased to announce that it will present Princess Ida, from March 10 to April 2, 2028.

Princess Ida tells the story of Princess Ida and Prince Hilarion, who were married in infancy by their fathers, King Gama and King Hildebrand. Ida, however, refuses to be bound by the decisions that others have made for her and has left her father’s court to establish a college for women from which all men are barred. Hilarion and his friends infiltrate the castle, disguised as women, in Hilarion’s attempt to win Princess Ida’s love. King Hildebrand, however, grows impatient and storms the castle. Ida is abandoned by her women, who fear a military conflict, and is failed by her brothers who offer to fight for her, but lose. Ultimately, as she has come to know Hilarion, however, realizes that she loves him, and decides for herself that she will consent to their marriage.

In Princess Ida, Gilbert satirizes feminism, women’s education and Darwinian evolution, which were controversial topics in conservative Victorian England. The operetta is based on a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, called The Princess, written in 1847. Gilbert had written a farcical musical play, based on the poem, in 1870, and lifted much of the dialogue of Princess Ida directly from his 1870 farce. Princess Ida is the only Gilbert and Sullivan opera in three acts and the only one with dialogue in blank verse.

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company will present its revised version of Princess Ida, which restores much of the remarkably progressive intent of Tennyson’s poem, reflecting his support for the early British women’s movement and higher education for women. Like Tennyson’s poem, our revision celebrates the equality and mutuality of the sexes.

Princess Ida was produced between Iolanthe and The Mikado, when Gilbert and Sullivan were at the height of their creative powers. The score is Sullivan at his best, and some people consider that Gilbert’s libretto contains some of his funniest lines.

All performances will be at the Conn Theater, at Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 1900 Nicollet Avenue South, in Minneapolis. Friday and Saturday evening performances are at 7:30 pm. The Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm.

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