In case you didn’t know, September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day. For a little “holiday” fun with a seasonal twist, here are a few random bits of nautical silliness, picked just for Listers:
Pop quiz
Quick: how many nautical operas and song cycles can you name in ten seconds or less? Give it a shot, and check your answers by scrolling down to our list below. (We compiled it with a few quick searches, so let us know what we’re missing!)
Put that language training to work
Just because we can, learn how to talk like a pirate — in German. Grab your Enterhaken and get a handle auf Deutsch here. (If that’s too easy, try it in Dutch — think of it as Method prep for a little Wagnerian nautical ditty…)
How about a vacation?
MSC Cruises’ luxury ship the MSC Opera sails the Mediterranean with mildly opera-themed fun for the whole family. The online reviews are mixed, but it could be fun…
…and a blast from before The Big Chill
Though the 1983 Pirates of Penzance film certainly has some gaping holes for true G&S fans, watching the amazing Kevin Kline (still early in his stardom) throw himself wholly into the Pirate King is just too good to pass up:
Nautical-themed vocal works — A list quickly sourced*
Billy Budd (Britten)
The Commodore (Offenbach)
Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)
The Flying Dutchman (Wagner)
Fringes of the Fleet (Elgar)
HMS Pinafore (Gilbert & Sullivan)
Il corsaro (Verdi)
Jonah and the Whale (Argento)
Le pauvre matelot (Milhaud)
Moby Dick (Heggie)
Noye’s Fludde (Britten)
Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
Peter Grimes (Britten)
Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan)
Riders to the Sea (Vaughn Williams)
The Sailor-Boy and the Falcon (Siskind)
Sea Pictures (Elgar)
Siren Song (Dove)
The Tempest (Adès; Hoiby)
Three Pirate Songs (Schickele)
To Be Sung Upon the Water (Argento)
(This one’s plenty wet, but not really naval in any way — but it was written for our own Lister tenor Mallory Walker!)
Tristan and Isolde (Wagner)
Also, here’s a list of individual pirate songs created by a San Antonio radio station in 2011.
* What are we missing? Please comment below!
