H.M.S. Pinafore

Background
The fourth collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan was their first blockbuster hit: "H.M.S. 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 gentlemanly Captain of the Pinafore, who claims that he would never swear at his crew (What, Never?), does not know that his daughter has fallen in love with a common sailor serving on her father's ship. Meanwhile, the Captain has arranged for her to marry the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Joseph Porter. Sir Joseph himself has risen from humble beginnings to gain his office by political acumen, despite having never gone to sea! And the Captain himself fancies a poor bumboat woman. Fear not: it all works out in the end. Hip, hip, hoorah!
Plot
The Pinafore, a "saucy" beauty of a ship in Her Majesty's navy is anchored in the harbour 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.
A handsome and accomplished sailor, Ralph, tells his messmates that he is in love with the Captain's daughter, Josephine. Dick Deadeye, the embodiment of the ugly truth, reminds the starry-eyed seaman that Captain's daughters don't marry foremast hands! The Captain arrives to inspect his crew. The gentleman captain sings that he never uses foul language and is never sick at sea — well, "hardly ever."