A huge fan of the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, film director Mike Leigh famously made the 1999 film “Topsy Turvy” about the popular composers of comic opera. No he gets to direct one of the Savoy opera’s most popular works at the Grand Théâtre.

A co-production with English National Opera--“The Pirates Of Penzance” premiered in May this year at the Coliseum in London--this version sees Leigh playing it straight, as Fiona Maddocks writes in The Observer. But that allows the director to “lay bare the work’s anarchy, savagery and wit.”

The operetta includes one of the most enduring songs written by Gilbert and Sullivan—‘I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General’--and was praised upon its first performances in both London and New York for being “fresh, bright, elegant and merry”.

A few Category 1 and Category 3 tickets remain for the show on Friday 16 October. The state of affairs for the Sunday afternoon performance are a little better, with some tickets still available in all categories. But our advice is to book now to avoid disappointment.