H.M.S. Pinafore

H.M.S. Pinafore is a comic opera in two acts by W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911)[1] and Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)[2]

It was originally performed with its full title, as H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass That Loved a Sailor, but generally referred to simply as H.M.S. Pinafore.

The Gilbert and Sullivan opera is not to be confused with the musical comedy The Wreck of the Pinafore by Lingard and Searelle (1880).

The original text

The play opened at the Opera Comique, London, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, became an international success and had a great impact on the evolution of the musical as an art form.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

Professional productions

1870s: Performed at the Theatre Royal in Burg Street by Disney Roebuck and his company.

1887: Performed by the Searelle Opera Company under the auspices of the Wheeler Company, as part of the large repertoire of operatic works, at the Opera House Cape Town over the course of nearly 8 months.

circa 1900: Performed by Amos Bailey and the Woodstock Amateur Operatic Society, Cape Town, in an improvised theatre in a small school room in Woodstock.

1902-3: Performed in South Africa by the visiting D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as part of their repertoire of Gilbert and Sullivan works, presented over the course of two seasons. In Cape Town they appeared at the Good Hope Theatre.

1906: Performed in Cape Town as part of a season of Savoy operas[3] by a company brought together by Wheeler and Smith (billed as the "managers and proprietors" of the Opera House).

Productions by various Gilbert and Sullivan societies

1935: Performed by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1951: Performed by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1953: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society at the Labia Theatre, conducted by Walter Swanson (18 - 26 May).

1956: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1966: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1971: Presented by the East London Light Operatic Society in collaboration with the Hebrew Order of David, at the Guild Theatre.

1973: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1978: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1979. Performed by the Port Elizabeth Gilbert & Sullivan Society

1984: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

1992: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

2009: Performed by the Cape Town Gilbert and Sullivan Society

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.M.S._Pinafore

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 389-390, 410-411, 423-4

Sjoerd Alkema. 2012. "Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective". University of Cape Town. Unpublished PhD thesis.

Arts Theatre Club archive held by George Mountjoy.

Go to ESAT Bibliography