An illustration of a scene from H.M.S. Pinafore from the original theatre poster and playbill created for the original production in 1878 at the Opera Comique in London. The characters shown, from left to right foreground, are Josephine, Little Buttercup (with hat), Cousin Hebe (?), Sir Joseph (above, on bridge), Captain Corcoran with boatcloak and cat 'o nine tails, Ralph, Dick Deadeye (with blond beard). The character crouching at right is likely intended to be the Boatswain. The scene depicted is consistent with the moment in Act II after Captain Corcoran's line: "... to seek your Captain's child in marriage, why Damme, it's too bad!" Note that Sir Joseph has entered but does not yet seem to have heard the Captain's oath. The illustration is also reproduced in The Official D'Oyly Carte Picture History by Robin Wilson and Frederic Lloyd, p. 65 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984 ISBN 0394541138) and also appears on the cover of the Dover full score of H.M.S. Pinafore, (2002 ISBN 0486422011).
By D'Oyly Carte Company - http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/pinafore/web_opera/entracte.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19842175
H.M.S. Pinafore opened on the 25th May 1878 at the Opera Comique in London, running for 571 performances which made it the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. It was Gilbert and Sullivan’s fourth collaboration, and it became their first international hit. Pinafore has become one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s best-known operettas. It is thought that Pinafore marked the beginning of modern musical theatre.
Most of the reviews for the first performance were favourable with one member of the audience, Sir George Douglas: ‘One heard that night for the first time, words and airs that have remained with one ever since, and that straightaway became a part of the national inheritance’. Unfortunately, there was a heatwave in May and June 1878 and the numbers attending started to drop. The ventilation in the theatre was very poor. Sullivan was the conductor for the Promenade Concerts at Covent Garden Opera House, and he included a selection from the Pinafore in the programme. This revived interest in the Pinafore and by the end of August, the theatre was full at every performance.
Cast of HMS Pinafore, Christchurch Operatic Society. Ref: 1/2-116347-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22700733
The Globe newspaper of 14th March 1879 discussed the production of Pinafore in London stating that ‘ Mr Sullivan’s opera is likely to take a high place in the repertory of English operatic music, but it is however a meritorious work’.
The operetta deals with love between different social classes and ridicules the British class system in general. Other aspects it deals with are the Royal Navy, patriotism, snobbery, hypocrisy and how people who are unqualified can be in positions of authority. The title is an interesting choice, the use of the word pinafore, a piece of feminine clothing, being applied to a warship.
In 1876 Richard D’Oyly Carte, brought together a group of financial backers to establish the Comedy Opera Company, which the purpose of producing family-orientated comic opera. The backers were publishers Frank Chappell, George Meltzer, Augustus Collard Drake and Edward Hodgson Bayley. This company’s first production was “The Sorcerer”, at the Opera Comique. D’Oyly Carte was leasing the theatre at the time. In 1879, D’Oyly Carte conviced Gilbert and Sullivan to enter into a partnership with him however the Comedy Opera Company wanted to retain the performance rights of the Gilbert and Sullivan works. After some legal action, the partnership between Carte, Sullivan and Gilbert in August 1879 gave the rights to produce the Gilbert and Sullivan works to the trio.
This new partnership meant that Carte, Sullivan and Gilbert were able to produce their shows using their own money. And, they were able to have their own cast of performers, not those who were already engaged by the theatre. Their intention was to find less well-known but talented performers to whom they could teach a more natural style of performance than was used at the time. They were often able to tailor their work to suit a particular actor’s strengths. It also meant that the profits from the shows were divided equally between the three of them.
Approx 1920, Alberta, Canada. By Provincial Archives of Alberta - Cast of "H.M.S. Pinafore", No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44058036
Gilbert endeavoured to make sure that the costumes and sets were as realistic as possible, Gilbert and Sullivan visited Portsmouth on the 13th April 1878 to inspect naval ships. Other sources state that it was only Gilbert who visited Portsmouth on 13th April 1878; possibly there were two visits with Sullivan accompanying Gilbert on the second. From the sketches he had made on the H.M.S. Victory he was able to make a model of Pinafore’s deck. From The Gilbert and Sullivan book ‘a photograph of Gilbert’s model stage was published with this description: ‘He has an exact model of the stage made to half-inch scale, showing every entrance and exit, exactly as the scene will appear at the theatre. Little blocks of wood are made representing men and women – the men are three inches high and the women and two and a half. These blocks are painted in various colours to show the different voices. The green and white striped blocks may be tenors, the black and yellow sopranos, the red and green contraltos and so on. With this before him, and a sheet of paper, Mr Gilbert works out every single position of his characters, giving them their proper places on the model stage, and he is thus enabled to go down to rehearsal prepared to indicate to every principal and chorister his proper place in the scene under consideration’.
Pinafore takes place on the quarterdeck of the H.M.S. Pinafore which is anchored in the harbour at Portsmouth. One lovely anecdote that is outlined in The Gilbert and Sullivan book is as follows ‘Richard Barrington recalled that when rehearsing Pinafore Gilbert tole him to sit on one of the ship’s skylights, pensively. “I did so, but the stage carpenter had only sewn the thing together with packthread, and when I sat on it, it collapsed entirely, whereupon he said like lightning: “That’s expensively”’
As would often happen, Sullivan left the writing of the overture to the very end. He sketched it out, and left it for Alfred Cellier, the company’s music director, to complete. Often when Sullivan was composing the music for Pinafore he was in considerable pain with a kidney complaint.
Whilst writing the libretto for Pinafore Gilbert started to suffer from gout. He was constantly revising Pinafore right up until the first performance.
The piano score sold 10,000 copies, apparently in one day.
Cover of the programme for “H.M.S. Pinafore” produced by The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust.
Many versions of Pinafore, without authority of Carte, Gilbert and Sullivan, played in the United States with much success, the first production being in Boston on the 25th November 1878. It is thought that about 150 unauthorised productions of the Pinafore played in the United States in the years 1878 and 1879. Very few played the operetta as written, there were burlesques, gender reversals in roles, spoofs, productions in other languages to name a few. In the Otago Witness newspaper on the 14th June 1879 it states ‘Mr Arthur Sullivan states that although 150 companies are playing Pinafore in the United States, only one manager has made any pecuniary acknowledgment to the authors’. The authorised Pinafore production opened in New York on 1st December 1879, unfortunately due to the prior ‘Pinafore’ productions it was not very successful.
In early July 1879 the Comedy Opera Company was informed by Sullivan that the three of them would not be renewing their contract with them and that he would be withdrawing the music by the end of the month. The Comedy Opera Company countered by saying that they would stage Pinafore at another theatre and brought legal action against them. Although they offered the British touring casts more money, few accepted. They even organised for group of ‘thugs’ to steal the scenery and props during the second act on 31st July. This they were unable to do although there were some chaotic scenes on the night. There is a wonderful description of this event in Leslie Baily’s book. The Comedy Opera Company did produce a rival Pinafore however it was not particularly successful, and the matter was settled in Carte’s favour about two years later. Gilbert organised for sandwich-board men to walk the street informing the public that the Pinafore at the Opera Comique was the authorised version. In the Auckland Star on the 29th September 1879 it says ‘H.M.S. Pinafore has all but reached its 400th night at the Opera Comique, and is also being played by a rival company at the Imperial’.
The first performance of Pinafore in New Zealand was on the 9th June 1879 at the Theatre Royal in Auckland. In the Auckland Star on the 5th June 1879 it states ‘the words, which are by Gilbert, abound with a broad vein of rich humour. The situations and dialogue are over-poweringly ridiculous and mirth-provoking, and there is a high spice of romance to season the plot. The music is by A. Sullivan and is one of his best in this class of compositions’.
Studio portrait of Miss Maggie Moore and two child actors, whole-length, in costume for performance of H.M.S. Pinafore; J.C. Williamson's production of H.M.S. Pinafore opened at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, on November 15th, 1879, Maggie Moore (1851-1926) played Josephine and her husband J.C. Williamson played Sir Joseph Porter, the original London costumes and scenery were all authentically reproduced; also played in Melbourne.
By Photographer unknown, from Theatre portraits collection, State Library Victoria (Australia) - http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1786775 c. 1879 H12080/3 Theatre Portraits Collection State Library Victoria (Australia), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95275042
Pinafore was produced in Christchurch on the 16th June 1879 by the Amateur Opera Class at the Theatre Royal. One reviewer in the Press on the 17th June 1879 says ‘the music possesses all the characteristic features of Arthur Sullivan’s style. It is light, sparkling and melodious, with quaint phrases running through it that haunt the ear long afterwards’.
Above are from the 10th December 1879 Ashburton Herald and the 30th July 1879 Auckland Star.
The production of Pinafore in Wellington, according to the Evening Post on the 17th July 1879 was marred by the ‘one grossly incapable member of a cast to spoil the best entertainment. The leading tenor, to whom was allotted the part of Rackstraw either never knew of had utterly forgotten his part, and for other reasons also ought not to have been allowed to appear at all. Such notes or words as he did manage to bring forth might just as well have been omitted, both being incomprehensible, owing to the thickness of his voice and the indisticntness of his utterances, whilde during most of the time he either wandered aimlessly about the stage, indulged in uncouth and meaningless gesticulations, or else stood with folded arms grinning vacantly before him. The audience bore it patiently for a time, in compassion for the other performers, but before long the general indignation could not be repressed, and a perfect storm of hisses burst forth from all parts of the house, on which the tenor impudently returned thanks. The first act closed hurriedly, amid tremendous uproar and many of the audience left at once. Mr Florence (the tenor in question) came on again he instantly “upset” everything and put all the others out. The consequence was that public indignation again broke forth and reached such a pitch that the performance was brought to an abrupt termination for fear of an actual riot, and the curtain hastily dropped to an accompaniment of hisses, hootings, groans and yells such as never has been heard in that Theatre before’. It goes on to say that the manager should have made an explanation and an apology. At the end of the article, they state that Mr Florence would be best to not appear before them again because ‘with a less good-natured assemblage than that of last night his personal safety might have been in considerable danger’.
The above are from the Evening Star on the 28th July 1879 and the Auckland Star on the 5th July 1879.
It was first produced in Dunedin at the Princess Theatre on July 28th 1879. On the 20th September 1879 there is a review of a Pinafore production by the ‘newly-arrived’ English Opera Company. It states that ‘the story of the Pinafore is no doubt pretty well known, for it has been played here (after a fashion) and allusions have been frequently made to the plot by journals of all kinds’.
In the Poverty Bay Herald on the 15th May 1888, there is a short piece on “Piracy of Pinafore”. An interim injunction on the Perman Pinafore Company was placed as the company, performing on the West Coast, were playing Pinafore without a license from a Mr Gillon, agent of the proprietors of the copyright. A writ claiming £150 in damages for past performance was issued at Gilbert and Sullivan’s suit.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.M.S._Pinafore
archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/d7fc0f5d-7568-31ef-9d64-0ee405f8e55c?component=49381c80-961a-3f02-8951-dbf2a958de47
nygasp.org/hms-pinafore-tour
The Gilbert and Sullivan Book by Leslie Baily published by Spring Books 1966
www.paperspast.natlib.nz