Arthur Sullivan - H.M.S. Pinafore - "Can I survive this overbearing?" (1960 D'Oyly Carte Recording)

I've recently began approaching the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, probably because I've fallen for the film "Topsy-Turvy", and I've found them delightfully charming and comical, so I've decided to post a section from the pair's first huge success, "H.M.S.Pinafore", the tremendously successful Act One Finale.

The opera's gentle satire builds on a classical theme for Gilbert theme of love between members of different social classes, also poking good-natured fun at the Royal Navy and, in themes to be repeated in the later operas, parliamentary politics and the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority. The title of the work itself is humorous, as it juxtaposes the name of a little girl's garment, pinafore, with the symbol of a naval warship. The plot itself revolves around a naval captain's daughter who is in love with a lower-class foremast hand (a common sailor, well below officer rank), even though her father intends her to marry the First Lord of the Admiralty, the cabinet minister in charge of Britain's Royal Navy. As with most of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise twist changes matters dramatically near the end of the story with everything happily resolved.

The finale's narrative is as follows: Ralph, the sailor in question, after being denied his feelings by Josephine, his love, summons his shipmates, and tells them he is bent on suicide. He puts a pistol to his head, but as he is about to pull the trigger Josephine enters, proclaiming she loves him after all, which causes universal happiness of all, except Dick Deadeye who warns them that their actions will lead to trouble, but he is ignored. The piece develops classically, almost in belcanto fashion, incorporating a central andante (perhaps slightly parodying baroque opera) and an explosively joyous coda.

The version I used is an absolutely perfect 1960 recording with the following cast:

Thomas Round - Ralph Rackstraw,
Donald Adams - Dick Deadeye,
Jean Hindmarsh - Josephine,
Joyce Wright - Hebe.

Hope you'll enjoy :)!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Gilbert
• Sullivan
• opera
• belcanto

[rassy612]

You forgot to tell us who is playing the Boatswain, who has lines of his own and is casted in the score in his own character and not merely part of the sailor's chorus.

[CaballeroCatalan]

9:08-9:24 Catchiest bit of music in HISTORY

[spelvin2002]

@poordogabone Tom Round was one of the handsomest of the 1950's-1970's musical theatre tenors. Today, at 94, he remains one of the most charming and approachable stars of the DOC. I had the good fortune to have met him in 1972 when he toured with G&S For All. Not at all overbearing or into himself, just a real guy, but so damned good-looking that everybody, even the men, loved him.

[beatlesopera]

It's a pity Martyn Green wasn't in the Doyly Carte company at the same time as Thomas round and Donald Adams

[JoeForMusic]

As you wrote ...

... absolute perfection.

With such a treasure in the musical recording, one's imagination is free to visualize a staging as perfect as was Gilbert's original.

Beautiful.

[poordogabone]

Thomas Round will always be my definitive G&S tenor. What a voice! And how hot was he in his prime?

[grimalover]

Doyly Carte is the best for Gilbert and Sullivan.

[HarborGuy]

BRAVO!!!!

[CaballeroCatalan]

Charming, charming!

[CaballeroCatalan]

Cousin Hebe doesn't have a solo here; she doubles some of the lines for "Oh joy oh rapture unforeseen" and gets a few of her own in "This very Night" ("as stiff as death", etc).