Pirates is Gilbert and Sullivan's fifth collaboration, and one of their most successful. It had its official premiere in New York in 1879, chiefly with the aim of dodging the theatrical pirates who had copied HMS Pinafore in the US without paying any royalties. After Pirates opened theatrical entrepreneur extraordinaire Richard D'Oyly Carte launched four companies, each rehearsed by Gilbert and Sullivan themselves, to tour the United States for six months.

The story is characteristically tongue-in-cheek. Pirates drop anchor in the sleepy English seaside town of Penzance. The police are concerned but the ladies are delighted. Then naive young apprentice pirate Frederic meets Mabel, the beautiful daughter of one of the pillars of society and the swashbuckling begins...