The Pirates of Penzance is a comic opera in two acts composed by Gilbert and Sullivan. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London on December 31, 1879. The story follows Frederic, an orphan who has mistakenly been apprenticed to an ineffectual but raucous band of pirates. The story, set in Penzance, Cornwall, satirizes the British class system and pokes fun at the romanticized view of pirates. The opera was an immediate success and has been performed around the world ever since.