"H.M.S. Pinafore or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor" probably needs no introduction. The saga of a Royal Navy captain's daughter who falls in love with a humble sailor aboard his ship--and, in the process, throws a monkey wrench into her father's plans to marry her off to Sir Joseph Porter, the dithering First Lord of the Admiralty--was the opera that made Gilbert & Sullivan legends, and has been popular in America since it opened in 1878. At that time it played at eight different Broadway theaters simultaneously, and it remains a favorite of American audiences who cherish its charming blend of clever lyrics, beautiful music, operatic spoof and deft political satire.
