The fourth collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan was their first major success: H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor. It opened on May 25, 1878 at the Opera Comique where it ran for 571 performances. Touring companies spread its popularity throughout Britain and in America numerous companies "pirated" the work by staging productions without the consent of the authors and without paying them any royalties. Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte tried to beat the pirates by mounting their own production in New York. Today, Pinafore remains one of the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
Drawing on several of his earlier "Bab Ballads", Gilbert imbued H.M.S. Pinafore with mirth and silliness to spare. He pokes fun at the notion that the First Lord of the Admiralty should be a purely political appointment whose holder need never have been to sea. Sir Joseph Porter has arisen from humble beginnings to that high office by political acumen and not only insists that all orders should be qualified by the phrase "If you please" but writes songs to promote "independence of thought and action in the lower branches of the service". We meet the snobbish Captain, who never swears a "big, big D" (Well, hardly ever!) and who is horrified to find his daughter is in love with a "common" sailor on board his own ship whilst himself nurturing a fondness for a poor bumboat woman. How will it be possible for his daughter to be united with the man she loves without marrying beneath her station? Fear not: it all works out in the end. Hip, hip, hoorah!
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 intended to!
Scene from H.M.S. Pinafore at the Opera Comique,
from "The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News,
8 June 1878.
Click to enlarge.
Introduction, adapted from the book Tit-Willow or Notes and Jottings on Gilbert and Sullivan Operas by Guy H. and Claude A. Walmisley.
Internet Archive — The first edition of the Vocal Score, published by Metzler in 1878 can be downloaded in a variety of formats. The overture is not included, and the score differs in various places from the score as subsequently revised.
Interview given on arrival in New York (to produce H.M.S. Pinafore). "New York Herald", 6 November 1879.
Pinafore in America, 1878-79
Russ Sype has done a considerable amount of research into the various "pirate" productions of H.M.S. Pinafore which took place in the United States before the arrival of Gilbert and Sullivan with their authorised production. He has presented this in the form of a documentary on YouTube. Part 1 and Part 2 are now available. He has also contributed an article on the production of the opera by Alice Oates' Comedy Opera Company, the second production of the opera in America.
The Story of H.M.S. 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 colour illustrations 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.
H.M.S. Pinafore Clip Art: Bab
drawings illustrating H.M.S. Pinafore. Scanned graphics files
of Gilbert's own drawings.
American Pinafore Poster Collection —
A collection of high resolution scans of American Pinafore posters from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Illustrated Music Covers — The melodies of H.M.S. Pinafore were arranged as dance music and these arrangements were pubished with decorative illustrated covers. The opera's popularity in America led to songs and arrangements being also published there with decorative covers.
Poster created in 1879 to advertise the authorised production of H.M.S. Pinafore in New York. Restoration by Adam Cuerden.
Click to enlarge or
download a printable version.
Early reviews of H.M.S. Pinafore on the Savoy Opera Reviews website.
Savoynet Discussion Transcript — Transcript of a discussion of H.M.S. 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.
Hebe's Cut Dialogue — In the Licence Copy
of the libretto, Gilbert gave Hebe much dialogue that was subseqently
cut. Marc Shepherd gives the background to this and you can read
the cut material.
The Making of H.M.S. 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".
Article 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.
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. H.M.S. Victory is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.
