Read-Aloud Thursday: A Fabulous Find

Since posting the Modern Major General’s song for a Poetry Friday a few weeks ago, The Pirates of Penzance has been front-and-center in our house. The girls pick up on the rollicking spirit of the music and were so curious about the story that I Netflixed the 1980 version with Rex Smith as Frederick, the slave of duty, bound to his pirate apprenticeship seemingly forever because he was born in leap year. Kevin Kline plays the pirate king, and Linda Ronstadt is Mabel, Frederick’s love interest.

I’m tickled that the girls liked it so much. (As I type this, they’re listening to my old tape of the operetta, repeatedly, in the background.) I liked Gilbert and Sullivan as a child too, and my parents brought me to the Summer Savoyards to see the HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado. Before I was born, my uncle played the Modern Major General (or “Moderation General,” as my 5-year-old called him) in one of these local productions.

Anyway, pulling myself back from a nostalgia trip…

How perfectly timed this review on NPR was, dropping into the midst of our Penzance-fest. I immediately put Jonah Winter’s The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert And Sullivan on hold at the library. It tells the story of Gilbert and Sullivan’s tempestuous partnership, creating operettas for a stage world Winter calls “TopsyTurveydom.” The tale describes the breach between them when Sullivan vowed to quit writing music for any more of Gilbert’s “silly stories.” The two eventually reconcile, going on to collaborate on The Mikado.

My 5-year-old’s favorite part? “When they got back together. Because it was all very happy.” My 8-year-old’s delayed reaction had more to do with how the two squabbling writers behaved. “If I were Mr. Sullivan,” she reflected, “I wouldn’t have been so rude. I would have just said, ‘I am retiring from writing operas.’”

Would this book appeal to everyone? The pictures are colorful and detailed and fun, and the story is simply told. But the subject is just specialized enough that it’s probably classed as a special interest book, a good complement to an art or history lesson — or a sudden mania of the type that has washed over our home. It was perfect for us.