Social Subtext in Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’

A R T L▼R K

On the 25^th of May 1878, the comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lass That Loved a Sailor, by Arthur Sullivan (music) and Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (libretto) had its premiere at the Opera Comique in London. The review that followed soon after the opera’s opening in The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular stated “…that this firmly cemented union between author and composer is detrimental to the art-progress of either; however, they may succeed in satisfying the temporary taste of an Opera-Comique audience.” And further it read: “Offenbach has shown us how merely lively and pleasing tunes can attract the general public; but Auber has proved that something higher is demanded for what is understood as “comic opera, ” and that Mr. Sullivan has in him the true elements of an artist, which would be successfully developed were a carefully framed libretto presented to him…

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