The The-Ah-Tuh - H.M.S. PinaforeHMS Pinafore is a typical Gilbert & Sullivan light opera, dealing with British class differences and hilarious switches and confusions between people. Pinafore was first performed at the Opera Comique, London, on May 25, 1878, but much of its humor is still timely. Who, for example, can listen to Sir Joseph Porter sing about how he became the ruler of the Queen's Navee without thinking about our own much beloved Shrub? Briefly, the Pinafore is docked in Portsmouth, with its Captain Corcoran and brave crew, which includes Ralph Rackstraw and Dick DeadEye. Little Buttercup is a buxom bumboat woman who visits the sailors to sell them wares, like ribbons for their girlfriends, sundries, etc. Buttercup (played divinely by Dawn!) has an eye for the Captain, but she knows that his rank and high birth makes him out of her reach. Captain Corcoran's daughter, Josephine, is in love with Ralph, but as she is highborn and he a mere low-born sailor, she knows that is not possible either. Sir Joseph Porter, a useless fop of a man who is the First Lord of the Admiralty due mostly to his skills at brown-nosing, has been promised Josephine's hand in marriage. Things progress apace, with love pointed in the wrong direction and snobby classisms abounding, until Buttercup confesses her deep canker-worm of a secret... that long ago she was a nursemaid, to two boys (coincidentally the Captain and Ralph), who she inadvertently switched. Completely ignoring the requisite "ewwwwwwww" because Buttercup is in love with the man that she nursed in childhood, now the players all realize that Ralph is highborn and should be Captain, Corcoran as low-born should be a simple sailor, they immediately reverse their roles and are promptly happily paired as Corcoran and Buttercup, Ralph and Josephine, and the Pinafore sails on happily every after. Lots of great patter songs come within this story, of course! |
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