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The fourth collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan was their first blockbuster hit: "HMS Pinafore", or "The Lass That Loved a Sailor." This opera opened May 28, 1878 at the Opera Comique. It ran for 571 performances and became a huge fad in England, as well as in America, being copied illegally by dozens of performing companies in the US, as well as being presented there by Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte themselves. Pinafore is among the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas, perhaps because of its infectious tunes and generally well-constructed libretto.
Drawing on several of his earlier "bab ballad" poems, Gilbert embued HMS Pinafore with mirth and silliness to spare. The opera's gentle satire reprises and builds upon one of The Sorcerer's themes: Love between members of different social classes. The gentlemanly Captain of the Pinafore, who claims that he would never swear at his crew (What, Never?), does not know that his daughter has fallen in love with a common sailor serving on her father's ship. Meanwhile, the Captain has arranged for her to marry the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Joseph Porter. Sir Joseph himself has risen from humble beginnings to gain his office by political acumen, despite having never gone to sea! And the Captain himself fancies a poor bumboat woman. Fear not: it all works out in the end. Hip, hip, hoorah!
By Samuel Silvers.
Pinafore Web Opera
Another in our very popular series of Web Operas, containing all of the music from the opera as MIDI files, along with the full lyrics and dialogue and many pictures. Warning!! Singing-along with the music in our web operas is addictive -- you will spend much more time doing it than you intend to! |
- Introduction, adapted from the book Tit-Willow or Notes and Jottings on Gilbert and Sullivan Operas by Guy H. and Claude A. Walmisley.
- Libretto:
- Text or Word version.
- A version of the libretto formatted for use with palmtop computers is available from the Palm Pirates web site.
- 1879 edition published by A. S. Seer, New York. [from the Internet Archive].
- The Story of HMS Pinafore by Sir W. S. Gilbert — this 1908 book is a retelling of the HMS Pinafore story for "young readers." It includes 16 stunning full page color paintings and a number of black and white drawings.
- Lost Song: In 1999 a lost song from H.M.S. Pinafore was reconstructed by two Gilbert and Sullivan musicologists.
- HMS Pinafore Clip Art: Bab drawings illustrating HMS Pinafore. Stephen B. Sullivan's scanned graphics files of Gilbert's own drawings.
- Savoynet Discussion Transcript — Transcript of a discussion of HMS Pinafore by members of the SavoyNet distribution list. This extensive discussion provides substantial background information on this opera, and is a must for anyone wanting to understand it better, produce it, or perform in it. Compiled by Bill McCann.
- Expanded Hebe Role — restored speaking parts for Hebe, courtesy of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, Texas.
- The Making of HMS Pinafore — from the book "Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas" by François Cellier & Cunningham Bridgeman, published by Little, Brown and Company in 1914.
- H.L. Mencken Newspaper Article — Newspaper Article on HMS Pinafore by the American journalist H. L. Mencken.
- Bab Ballads: The following Bab Ballads served as source material or inspiration for HMS Pinafore. The Bab Ballads were Gilbert's poetry, for which he used his pen name of Bab. Most of the Bab Ballads were published in the magazine "Fun".
- Articles from Precious Nonsense (The Newsletter of the Midwestern Gilbert and Sullivan Society):
- "Character Analysis 'Dick Deadeye'." by Larry C. Littlefield. A rather imaginative story about a scheme by Dick Deadeye and Buttercup to make some money. From the June 1987 Precious Nonsense.
- A review of Dick Deadeye, The Movie, from the September 1985 Precious Nonsense.
- An extensive review and description of the animated feature length film "Dick Deadeye." Review by Winfield Smith, description by Sarah Cole.
- A review of the W. S. Gilbert children's book "The Pinafore Picture Book; The Story of H.M.S. Pinafore told by Sir W. S. Gilbert" (New York: Macmillan, 1908). Describes Gilbert's views of this work in 1908, 30 years after he first produced it. Presents a quite different interpretation of the characters of Buttercup and Dick Deadeye.
- Life on a 19th Century British Man of War — Life on a British man-'o-war in the 19th century was, of course, quite different from that portrayed in H.M.S. Pinafore. Get an idea of what it was really like from the H.M.S. Victory web site. HMS Victory is the only remaining 18th century ship of the line anywhere in the world.
- H.M.S. Dumbledore by Caius Marcius is a full-length Harry Potter musical based based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It uses all the songs and recitatives from H.M.S. Pinafore (though not in the same order).
Page updated
5 November, 2007
. Copyright © 2007 The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. All rights reserved. |
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