Music: Class struggle before the mast

Gilbert&Sullivan’s comic opera ‘H. M. S. Pinafore,’ which has entertained audiences for 130 years, is coming to the PAC on Monday

By Sarah Linn

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‘H. M. S. PINAFORE’

8 p. m. Monday; 7 p. m. pre-concert lecture

Christopher Cohan Center, Performing Arts Center, 1 Grand Ave., San Luis Obispo

$42 to $54

756-2787, www.pacslo.org

Get ready for love and adventure on the high seas.

“H. M. S. Pinafore, or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor” comes to San Luis Obispo on Monday, courtesy of the Carl Rosa Opera Company of London.

Created by composer Arthur Sullivan and librettist W. S. Gilbert, the comic opera centers on a love affair thwarted by fate while poking gentle fun at politics, authority figures and seafaring life.

So popular is “Pinafore” that it pops up regularly in movies and TV shows, from “Chariots of Fire” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It’s even been parodied in an episode of “The Simpsons,” in which Bart stalls archenemy Sideshow Bob (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) by asking him to sing the entire “Pinafore” score.

According to Carl Rosa artistic director Peter Mulloy, the comic opera’s widespread appeal stems from its naval theme, lively action and familiar tunes, including “I’m called Little Buttercup,” “A British Tar” and “He is an Englishman.”

“The words and music are brilliant…and the story’s bizarre but funny,” he said. “It can be a fun, lighthearted night at the theater,” he said.

An impossible love story

Like many of Gilbert and Sullivan’s works, “H. M. S. Pinafore” starts by introducing an impossible romance.

Sailor Ralph Rackstraw, “the smartest lad in all the fleet,” pines after the daughter of the captain of his ship, the H. M. S. Pinafore.

There’s only one problem: As the daughter of a naval commander, Josephine is Ralph’s social superior. Her father, Captain Corcoran, hopes to marry her to the First Lord of the Admiralty, who’s in charge of the Royal Navy.

Meanwhile, Little Buttercup —the “rosiest, roundest, and reddest beauty in all Spithead”— has a secret to hide.

A series of comic misunderstandings leads to the ultimately happy conclusion.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s first big hit, “H. M. S. Pinafore” debuted at the Opera Comique in London in 1878. Pirated productions began popping up in the United States almost immediately, inspiring the title of the duo’s next opera, “The Pirates of Penzance.”

According to Mulloy, the comic opera is a favorite for Carl Rosa Opera, which has staged three United Kingdom tours of the current production, as well as one in Australia and New Zealand.

The current production, created for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, sets “Pinafore” during the cannon-and-sail days of the early 19th century.

In this tour, Barry Clark plays the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Joseph Porter.

“It’s quite fun to play an arch snob,” said Clark, who began his “Pinafore” career years ago as a young and charming Ralph Rackstraw.

Now he gets more comic roles and, frankly, prefers them.

“If you’re getting it right, people are laughing. That’s a great thing to hear from an audience,” Clark said.

At the heart of the silly “Pinafore,” however, is a serious issue. Much like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” in which servants get the better of their masters, “Pinafore” addresses the idea of class struggles and social injustice.

Take Sir Joseph, who instructs his sailors that they’re “any man’s equal, except mine”—right after detailing his own rise through the ranks by polishing door handles, practicing his penmanship and voting on the party line.

“I thought so little, they rewarded me/By making me the ruler of the Queen’s Navee,” Sir Joseph sings in “When I Was a Lad,” one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular patter songs.

“This comic opera can still show us the pomposity of our betters looking down on the lower working class,” said Mulloy, who’s also sung the role of Sir Joseph in several British productions.

Playing it straight

Although some American and British companies tend to ham up the operas’ fanciful characters and topsy-turvy plot twists, Mulloy said, “It should be acted as if it were totally believable.”

“The (comedy) comes out of telling the story,” he added.

That said, the director admitted that he paints with a broader brush stroke when preparing Gilbert and Sullivan for American audiences.

Folks in the States tend to like visual gags, while British audiences—often more familiar with the comic operas — prefer wordplay, Mulloy said.

Whatever their background, said Clark, classics like “Pinafore” appeal to everyone.

“Even though they’re in this very high-flown Victorian English, there’s still much to laugh at,” he said, calling the marriage of music and lyrics “miraculous.” “They’re very happy pieces.”