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The fourth collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan was their first blockbuster hit: "HMS Pinafore", or "The Lass That Loved a Sailor." This opera opened May 28, 1878 at the Opera Comique. It ran for 571 performances and became a huge fad in England, as well as in America, being copied illegally by dozens of performing companies in the US, as well as being presented there by Gilbert, Sullivan and Carte themselves.
Pinafore is among the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan operas, perhaps because of its infectious tunes and generally well-constructed libretto. Drawing on several of his earlier "bab ballad" poems, Gilbert embued HMS Pinafore with mirth and silliness to spare. The opera's gentle satire reprises and builds upon one of The Sorcerer's themes: Love between members of different social classes.
The Pinafore, a "saucy" beauty of a ship in her majesty's navy is anchored in the harbor at Portsmouth. Its proud sailors are busy scrubbing the decks for the expected arrival of Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty. "Little" Buttercup, a bumboat woman who is "red and round and rosy" comes aboard to sell to the sailors her stock of "snuff and tobaccy and excellent jacky," and other luxuries.
