Traveling opera to stop in Port Clinton

PORT CLINTON — A free event next month in Port Clinton stands to be the very model of a modern traveling opera production. The Toledo Opera's "Opera on Wheels" program is bringing a free performance of "The Pirates of Penzance" at 7 p.m. on May 11 at St. John Lutheran Church, 207 Adams St. The 40-minute performance will feature four singers and a pianist and is being hosted in conjunction with the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council. All are invited to attend. This version of "The Pirates of Penzance," the well-known comic opera, will explore growing up, duty, conflict resolution, and the acceptance of all people as they are, a news release states. A question-and-answer session will follow the performance. Here's a plot synopsis provided by the Toledo Opera: Set in the 19th century, the story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets the daughters of Major-General Stanley, including Mabel, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on the 29th of February, and so, technically, he has a birthday only once each leap year. His contract specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday," meaning that he is 5 "and a little bit." Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully.