H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878, and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation.
The story takes place aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Pinafore. The captain's daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father's wishes at first, but Sir Joseph's advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The Captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story.
Drawing on several of his earlier "Bab Ballad" poems, Gilbert imbued this plot with mirth and absurdity. The opera's humour focuses on love between members of different social classes and lampoons the British class system in general. Pinafore also pokes good-natured fun at patriotism, party politics, the Royal Navy, and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority. The title of the piece comically applies the name of a garment for girls and women, a pinafore, to the fearsome symbol of a warship.
Pinafore's extraordinary popularity in Britain, America and elsewhere was followed by the similar success of a series of Gilbert and Sullivan works, including The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Their works, later known as the Savoy operas, dominated the musical stage on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade and continue to be performed today. The structure and style of these operas, particularly Pinafore, were much copied and contributed significantly to the development of modern musical theatre.
Synopsis[edit]
Act I[edit]
The British warship H.M.S. Pinafore is at anchor off Portsmouth. The sailors are on the quarterdeck, proudly "cleaning brasswork, splicing rope, etc."
Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth "bumboat woman" (dockside vendor) – who is the rosiest, roundest, and "reddest beauty in all Spithead" – comes on board to sell her wares to the crew. She hints that she may be hiding a dark secret under her "gay and frivolous exterior". Ralph Rackstraw,[31] "the smartest lad in all the fleet", enters, declaring his love for the Captain's daughter, Josephine. His fellow sailors (excepting Dick Deadeye, the grim and ugly realist of the crew) offer their sympathies, but they can give Ralph little hope that his love will ever be returned.
(Entr'acte)
Revisions and cut material[edit]
Ballad for Captain Corcoran, "Reflect, my child"[edit]
During rehearsals for the original production, Gilbert added a ballad for Captain Corcoran in which he urged his daughter to forget the common sailor with whom she is in love, because "at every step, he would commit solecisms that society would never pardon." The ballad was meant to be sung between No. 5 and No. 6 of the current score, but it was cut before opening night. The words survive in the libretto that was deposited with the Lord Chamberlain for licensing. Before 1999, all that was known to survive of Sullivan's setting was a copy of the leader violin part.[168]
In April 1999, Sullivan scholars Bruce I. Miller and Helga J. Perry announced that they had discovered a nearly complete orchestration – lacking only the second violin part – in a private collection of early band parts. These materials, with a conjectural reconstruction of the partially lost vocal lines and second violin part, were later published and professionally recorded.[168][169] This piece has now been performed a number of times by amateur and professional companies, although it has not become a standard addition to the traditional scores or recordings.[170]
There have been numerous recordings of Pinafore since 1907.[176][177] Ian Bradley counted seventeen recordings of the opera available on CD in 2005.[178]
The 1930 recording is notable for preserving the performances of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company stars of the era. The 1960 D'Oyly Carte recording, which contains all the dialogue, has been repeatedly praised by reviewers.[179] The 1994 Mackerras recording, featuring grand opera singers in the principal roles, is musically well regarded.[176][180] The 2000 D'Oyly Carte recording also contains complete dialogue and the first recording of the "lost" ballad for Captain Corcoran, "Reflect, my child", as a bonus track.[181] A 1957 Danish-language recording of the opera is one of the few foreign-language professional recordings of Gilbert and Sullivan.[182]
In 1939, Pinafore was chosen by NBC as one of the earliest operas ever broadcast on American television, but no recording is known to have been saved.[183] The 1973 D'Oyly Carte video recording, directed by Michael Heyland, features the company's staging of the period, but some reviewers find it dull.[176] It is, however, one of only three video or film recordings of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.[184] In 1982, Brent Walker Productions produced Pinafore as part of its series of Gilbert and Sullivan television films. According to discographer Marc Shepherd, the Pinafore video "is widely considered one of the worst" in the series.[185][n 13] More recent professional productions have been recorded on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.[187]
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