Listen....to Pirates of Penzance sung by the Repertory Singers

A Swashbuckling Performance of Pirates of Penzance (Concert Version) at Whiteside Theatre, April 18

Audiences should "chart their course" for the Whiteside Theatre, Saturday, April 18 for the Corvallis Repertory Singers' performance of Pirates of Penzance.

The concert version of this Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera will feature two shows, a 3 p.m. matinee and 7 p.m. evening performance.

Pirates of Penzance, a comic opera in two acts, is one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operas. It premiered in New York City in 1879, telling the story of Frederic, mistakenly indentured as a young boy to a band of pirates, to which he dutifully served, until his 21st birthday. The opera was revived on Broadway in 1981.

Tickets are $15 and $12. High school and college students are admitted free with ID, and younger students are free accompanied by a ticketed adult. Mateys are invited to dress like pirates.

Tickets are available online at RepSing.org or locally at ticket outlets Grass Roots Books, Gracewinds Music, Troubadours, and Schmidt's Garden Centers in Corvallis; and Sid Sevens Jewelers in Albany.

For holders of an Oregon Trail Card, up to 2 tickets at $5 each are available at the door.

"What I am looking forward to the most with this concert is the interaction between the singers, both the leads and the chorus in this really fun music," said Artistic Director Steven Zielke. "Singing Pirates is a fun experience. There is playfulness and a joy to the music that has transcended generations and continues today. I can't wait to see how this playfulness will communicate with the audience."

The concert is sponsored, in part, through a $5,000 grant from the Fred W. Fields Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation in support of production costs and outreach efforts to middle and high school students in a four-county area - Benton, Linn, Polk, and Lincoln.

Earlier this spring, area music and theater teachers were sent a special invitation for their students to attend one of the two performances. This performance is also dedicated to the memory of Gary Tiedeman, a singer and former Corvallis Repertory Singers board president, who passed away in March 2014. Founded in 2000, the Corvallis Repertory Singers includes nearly 50 area singers, many who have studied voice or are professional singers. The group has been recognized for artistic achievement with funds from the Oregon Arts Commission, an agency supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and by the Benton County Cultural Coalition, with funds provided by the Oregon Cultural Trust.