The Dreaded Pirates is an interactive concert for children, where the audience is urged to help the pirate ensemble control the Ship of Dreams using gesticulations and their voices.
Mathias Madsen Munch has composed and conceptualized a concert, where the children as part of port and starboard seamlessly sing and move in different time signatures such as 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 and 7/8.
The concert tells the story of Captain Aquarius, who is destined to find the Treasure of Dreams at the bottom of the Ocean. Together with the audience and his pirate crew, the Captain has to cross a storm of unseen proportions and sail straight into the realms of death before he can find the treasure at the bottom of the sea. The Captain has to realize that cooperation is a better way to control a ship than dictatorship if the crew is to survive the vicious Malström.
The crew aboard the Ship of Dreams all play different instruments:
- Petrus is the Nordic first mate and plays the shipmate piano as well as a kalimba.
- Brombadil is the French sailor and plays the double bass
- Percussia is the most fierce of the pirates as she plays the drums.
- Charles Woodleg is the most worn out of all pirates - he plays different instruments such as guitar, cornet, flute, and saw.
- The Captain is the primary lead singer of the concert. He plays waterphone at the end of the concert (when it is revealed, that a bowed Aquaphone can save the crew from the Malström).
The duration of the concert is approximately 50 minutes. The music moves between different genres but the themes are used in a through-composed manner as the crew crosses the seven seas.