Generations of Americans have grown up thinking of opera as the cliche of arcane and stuffy, the domain of "fat ladies" screaming in foreign languages. Erik Haines, director of education at Hawaii Opera Theatre, hopes that HOT’s Opera Express production of Gilbert andSullivan’s operetta "The Pirates of Penzance" will show Hawaii keiki — and perhaps a few of their parents, too — that opera can be fun.

"This (show)may be one of the friendliest ways to go get involved in the world of opera," Haines said recently.You have a very light comedy which we’ve shortened from 21/2 hours to 40 minutes or so, and (the audience) gets to sing opera, too, and participate, so it doesn’t have to be this foreign thing with giant ladies with horns yelling as loud as they can. It’s ‘you can do this.’ It has the potential to be 45 minutes of good fun."

"Pirates" follows the misadventures of a young Englishman named Frederic, who was apprenticed by accident to a group of pirates. Frederic’s apprenticeship ends on his 21st birthday, and so he is footloose and fancy free when he meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. It’s love at first sight until Frederic discovers that he was born on Feb. 29 on a leap year and, technically, has only had five birthdays. Since his apprenticeship to the pirates ends on his 21st birthday, he must remain with them for another 63 years! Mabel promises to wait for him.

Haines said that condensing the show from two acts to one takes "a great deal of fun and ingenuity."

"We try to maintain the main part of the story, of course. We get rid of characters that we don’t really need, and we try to make sure that we include all the hit tunes in the show. Those are our main criteria," he said.

Matthew Walker plays Frederic and Major-General Stanley. John Gruhler is the Pirate King. Marlise Ahuna and Erin Winker Fasone play multiple supporting roles. Seven members of the audience will join them on stage; two will play pirates, two police, two will be Mabel’s sisters and the seventh will be a prisoner. Everyone in the audience will be encouraged to sing along.

"We usually pick a couple of the more memorable tunes from the show that the audience can pick up easily. We’ll go through the music with them before the show starts — they get to sing along and be part of the show."

A free study guide with background information, suggestions for story-related activities and the lyrics of the songs is available at www.hotpirates.weebly.com.