H.M.S. Pinafore is a popular comic opera by the famous British team of Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur S. Sullivan. Gilbert wrote the dialogue, and Sullivan composed the music. The comic opera opened on May 25, 1878. Its full title is H.M.S. Pinafore, or, the Lass That Loved a Sailor. It quickly became a hit. The show makes fun of the British class system, politics, the Royal Navy, and the appointment of unqualified people to positions of authority.
The action takes place on the Pinafore, a ship in the British Navy. Josephine, the daughter of Corcoran, the ship’s captain, is in love with Ralph Rackstraw, a sailor. However, Corcoran wants Josephine to marry Sir Joseph Porter, first lord of the Admiralty, a naval officer who has never been to sea. Josephine and Ralph plan to elope. But they are betrayed by the villainous sailor Dick Deadeye, and Sir Joseph orders Ralph to be taken to a “dungeon cell.” Mrs. Cripps, who operates a bumboat and is known as Little Buttercup, comes to the couple’s rescue. A bumboat is a small boat that ferries supplies to the ship from the shore. Buttercup reveals that she was Corcoran and Ralph’s foster mother and states that she accidentally switched them when they were babies. Thus, their social positions should be reversed. Sir Joseph promotes Ralph to captain of the Pinafore, clearing the way for Ralph to marry Josephine. Corcoran, now a common sailor, marries Buttercup. Sir Joseph marries his cousin Hebe.
The best-known songs in the show are “I Am the Captain of the Pinafore” by Corcoran, “I’m Called Little Buttercup” by Mrs. Cripps, and Sir Joseph’s comical account of how he became “ruler of the Queen’s Navee.”
See also D’Oyly Carte, Richard ; Gilbert, Sir William Schwenck ; Gilbert and Sullivan ; Sullivan, Sir Arthur Seymour .
