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H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor
is a
comic opera
in two acts. Opening at the
Opera Comique
in
London, on 25
May 1878 it 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. |
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The story takes place aboard the British ship
H.M.S.
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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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