IN COLLABORATION WITH THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
GILBERT & SULLIVAN HMS PINAFORE SCOTTISH OPERA
RICHARD EGARR CONDUCTOR TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR NARRATOR
JOHN MARK AINSLEY • ELIZABETH WATTS • TOBY SPENCE • HILARY SUMMERS NEAL DAVIES • ANDREW FOSTER-WILLIAMS • GAVAN RING • BARNABY REA • KITTY WHATELY HMS Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor Operetta in two acts by Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) Libretto by W.S. Gilbert (1836–1911) Scottish Opera | Richard Egarr conductor Disc 1 Act I
1 Overture ...... 5:18
2 Chorus: We sail the ocean blue ...... 2:02
3 Recitative & Song: Hail, men-o’-war’s men (Buttercup) ...... 3:12
4 Recitative: But, tell me (Buttercup, Boatswain) ...... 0:31
5 Scena: The Nightingale sighed (Ralph, Chorus, Buttercup)...... 5:17
6 Recitative & Song: My gallant crew, good morning (Captain, Chorus) ...... 2:17
7 Recitative: Sir, you are sad! (Buttercup, Captain) ...... 1:41
8 Song: Sorry her lot (Josephine) ...... 3:55
9 Chorus of Women: Over the bright blue sea ...... 0:48
10 Chorus of Sailors & Relatives: We sail the ocean blue ...... 2:02
11 Recitative, Song & Chorus: I am the monarch of the sea (Sir Joseph, Hebe, Chorus) ...... 1:23
12 Song: When I was a lad (Sir Joseph, Chorus) ...... 2:50
13 Exit for Ladies: For I hold that on the seas (Sir Joseph, Hebe, Chorus) ...... 0:50
14 Trio: A British tar (Ralph, Boatswain, Boatswain’s Mate, Chorus) ...... 2:40
15 Duet: Refrain, audacious tar (Josephine, Ralph, Chorus) ...... 3:44
16 Finale: Can I survive this overbearing (Ralph, Chorus, Dick, Josephine, Hebe, Boatswain) ...... 9:59
2 Disc 2 Act II
1 Entr’acte ...... 1:37
2 Song: Fair moon, to thee I sing (Captain) ...... 3:04
3 Duet: Things are seldom what they seem (Buttercup, Captain) ...... 3:39
4 Scena: The hours creep on apace (Josephine) ...... 5:08
5 Trio: Never mind the why and wherefore (Captain, Sir Joseph, Josephine, Chorus) ...... 2:54
6 Duet: Kind Captain (Dick, Captain) ...... 2:11
7 Soli: Carefully on tiptoe stealing (Chorus, Dick, Captain) ...... 1:45
8 Scena: Pretty daughter of mine (Captain, Chorus, Ralph, Josephine, Boatswain, Dick, Hebe, Sir Joseph) ..... 6:22
9 Octet: Farewell, my own (Ralph, Josephine, Sir Joseph, Boatswain, Dick, Hebe, Buttercup, Chorus) .. 2:51
10 Legend: A many years ago (Buttercup, Chorus) ...... 3:27
11 Finale: Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen (Josephine, Hebe, Ralph, Dick, Captain, Chorus, Buttercup, Sir Joseph) ...... 3:26
Total Running Time: 85 minutes
To download the libretto and biographies for free, visit http://www.linnrecords.com/recording-hms-pinafore.aspx
3 Tim Brooke-Taylor Neal Davies narrator Dick Deadeye, able seaman
John Mark Ainsley Andrew Foster- The Rt Hon. Sir Joseph Williams Porter, KCB, First Lord Captain Corcoran, of the Admiralty commanding HMS Pinafore
Elizabeth Watts Gavan Ring Josephine, the Bill Bobstay, Captain’s daughter boatswain
Toby Spence Barnaby Rea Ralph Rackstraw, Bob Becket, able seaman boatswain’s mate/ carpenter
Hilary Summers Kitty Whately Little Buttercup [Mrs Hebe, Sir Joseph’s Cripps], a Portsmouth first cousin bumboat woman
4 Recorded at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK, 23 August 2015 Produced and recorded by Philip Hobbs Assistant engineering by Robert Cammidge Post-production by Julia Thomas Design by gmtoucari.com
Recorded in co-operation with BBC Radio 3, with particular thanks to Lindsay Pell and Hywel Jones.
This live recording from the Edinburgh International Festival was made possible by Capital Document Solutions. The booklet material was commissioned by the Edinburgh International Festival.
5 Our Saucy Ship’s A Beauty
n the summer heat of 1878 not even W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s brilliant new comic opera could tempt Londoners into a hot and airless Itheatre. Launched to great acclaim at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May, HMS Pinafore was well and truly languishing in the doldrums by mid- summer. Then fate took a hand. Sullivan, who was appearing as conductor of the popular Covent Garden promenade concerts, included a selection for orchestra and band of numbers from his new opera in one of his programmes. People loved it. This – according to the composer, at least – had them flocking to the Opera Comique. Word got about, and soon the theatre was full again. HMS Pinafore became a sensation. ‘What, never? – Well, hardly ever!’ was on everyone’s lips. ‘Pinafore Mania!’ shouted the headline. The production went on to hold the stage for almost two years. Towards the end of the run there was even a children’s HMS Pinafore, in which all the parts were taken by young girls and boys, that played for several of the matinees each week. (The ‘damme’ interjections coming from the lips of innocent youngsters caused such pain to Lewis Carroll that he never forgave the composer.) Sullivan had already collaborated with the writer Gilbert on Thespis (1871), Trial by Jury (1875) and The Sorcerer (1877). It was a heaven-made partnership. Temperamentally different – they were never even on Christian-name terms – the two men were like chalk and cheese. Yet their talents complemented each other in the most uncanny way. Sullivan, the first holder of the Mendelssohn Scholarship, had progressed from the Royal Academy of Music to study
6 in Leipzig. On his return, his brilliant score for Shakespeare’s Tempest caused a sensation when it was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1861, and marked the 19-year-old composer out as the new hope of British music. Gradually consolidating his position, he began composing comic operas – or operettas – almost by chance. But it was a fortunate chance, and one by which he discovered the perfect outlet for his astonishing genius and very particular gifts. Gilbert’s creative career began in less stellar fashion than Sullivan’s. An unsuccessful barrister, he soon left the law to concentrate on writing: jobbing work as a translator of librettos, writing comic plays and pantomimes and contributing regularly to popular light-hearted journals. His celebrated Bab Ballads are mostly products of those early years. When he first worked with Sullivan on Thespis, a piece for which most of the music is now lost, he was certainly one of the rising men in the literary and theatrical world of London. Riding the success of the early Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations, the manager Richard D’Oyly Carte established the Comedy Opera Company with the two men, primarily to stage their joint works. They were now tied into a contract that required them to write new operas virtually on demand, so when something was needed to follow The Sorcerer they simply had to get on with the task. Gilbert’s idea was inspired: a skit on the Royal Navy and the British class system. Like several of his scenarios, it drew on his Bab Ballads, in particular ‘The Bumboat Woman’s Story’, whose Pineapple Poll (the heroine of the Sadler’s Wells ballet for which Charles Mackerras produced his brilliant Sullivan arrangements) became HMS Pinafore’s Little Buttercup. Sullivan was on the French Riviera for Christmas of 1877 when he received Gilbert’s outline for the new opera. As usual, he put off making a start until
7 pressures became irresistible; but in mid-April he was able to write to his mother, telling her ‘[I am] in the full swing of my new work’. For the five weeks from then until opening night he composed under tremendous pressure, battling with a kidney complaint that often left him insensible with pain. Understandably, he offloaded the task of arranging the Entr’acte to the conductor, Alfred Cellier. The Overture was also entrusted to Cellier, a fine composer in his own right; but it is uncertain whether this was heard at the first performance or introduced a little later. With HMS Pinafore successfully set on course and the heatwave-induced false start over, fresh troubles began. Some of the backers had fallen out with D’Oyly Carte and they staged a rival production, and even had the audacity to move it to a theatre virtually next door to D’Oyly Carte’s. Across the Atlantic, too, serious mischief was afoot. In New York the opera was filling several theatres, but with questionable productions by unauthorized companies that did not pay a cent in royalties. The London opposition soon wilted (an attempt to make off with the scenery from the Opera Comique in the middle of a performance hardly helped the rivals’ cause). But the American problem persisted. Bold action was required. The authentic HMS Pinafore had to be produced in New York, and so plans were laid to take the production across the Atlantic and wipe out the opposition by the sheer quality of the genuine article. Surprise would be important. Thus it was amid great secrecy that a group of leading performers from the London cast, accompanied by author and composer, sailed for America in October 1879. The plan worked. The genuine HMS Pinafore took New York by storm and soon D’Oyly Carte companies were touring it throughout the USA. A further – and stunning – blow to the theatrical pirates was dealt by the presentation of the world premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan’s next opera in New
8 York. So it was that The Pirates of Penzance opened, to tremendous acclaim, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre on New Year’s Eve 1879. The Americans were impressed, as London audiences had been, by the polish of the HMS Pinafore production. Sullivan worked to the highest musical standards and personally rehearsed the singers and orchestra, appearing on the conductor’s rostrum for the opening performance and many others. Gilbert was a brilliant stage director: his imaginative use of the chorus, in particular, was pioneering and has had a lasting impact on musical theatre. Accuracy of visual detail was another feature. From the seamen’s uniforms and the ship’s rigging to the formalities of naval drill, everything was finely modelled on the real thing. Stock costumes were certainly not good enough: the HMS Pinafore’s crew were correctly kitted out by a Portsmouth naval tailor. Gilbert himself spent hours aboard HMS Victory and other ships anchored in Portsmouth Harbour, carefully noting details that ensured his theatrical man-o’- war looked, quite literally, ship-shape. This was essential to Gilbert’s dramatic concept, whereby fine-tuned visual authenticity provided a foil to the verbal and narrative absurdities. With Trial by Jury Gilbert discovered how well gentle mockery of the establishment could work on the musical stage. In HMS Pinafore, Sir Joseph Porter, head of the Admiralty, a government department of which he has absolutely no experience, certainly had counterparts in Gladstone’s administration. Indeed, in spite of Gilbert’s denial, Sir Joseph’s rise from humble beginnings to become First Lord of the Admiralty is a clear jibe at W.H. Smith (founder of the newsagent business), whose career took just such a course. HMS Pinafore is rich in comic burlesque, sending up theatrical and operatic conventions and styles. The old nautical melodrama, with its impenetrable
9 marine jargon and heroically patriotic Jolly Jack Tar, was a ready target, and one that Gilbert was to use again in Ruddigore. The tongue-in-cheek writing is apparent from the opening chorus right through to the marvellous moment when the crew acclaim their shipmate, Ralph: ‘He is an Englishman!’ Dick Deadeye, too, destined to villainy by name and appearance, provides another dig at melodramatic convention. The music is equally rich in comic pastiche. The Handelian manner of the Captain’s opening exchanges with his crew is delightfully fatuous, as is the close of his recitative with Buttercup: ‘A plump and pleasing person’. The elopement scene conjures up nocturnal conspiracies from countless Italian operas. But, undoubtedly, the send-up of the big patriotic tune in ‘For he is an Englishman’ is one of the greatest master strokes. HMS Pinafore remains one of the most frequently performed of the Savoy Operas (the collective name given to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan after the eponymous theatre D’Oyly Carte built to present their works). Indeed, this very British creation has probably been more popular than any with non-English-speaking audiences through translations into Yiddish, Cantonese, Welsh and dozens of other languages. It certainly cemented the creative alliance between Gilbert and Sullivan, who continued writing together until just a few years before the composer’s death in 1900. Theirs was one of the great theatrical partnerships. With HMS Pinafore and the string of masterpieces that followed – among them The Pirates of Penzance (1879), Iolanthe (1882), The Mikado (1885), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888) and The Gondoliers (1889) – they made London in those heyday years the very centre of the operetta world. © David Russell Hulme, 2016
10 1 Overture Disc 1 Act I MS Pinafore lies at anchor in Portsmouth Harbour. On the quarterdeck the sailors enthuse over their life on the ocean wave as they set about Htheir daily routine 2. They are interrupted by the arrival of Mrs Cripps, a local bumboat woman, who has come to sell things from her basketful of
treats and little luxuries 3. Known by the men as Little Buttercup (though she could never tell why), she is struck by the melancholy appearance of one of
the sailors 4. His name, she learns, is Ralph Rackstraw, a revelation that clearly troubles her. Ralph is passionately in love, but with a lady so far above his
social station that he reckons his suit completely hopeless 5. She is well known to his crewmates, for she is Josephine, daughter of Captain Corcoran, their ship’s commanding officer.
The Captain appears and exchanges compliments with his crew 6. He is a popular commander who, in front of his men, shows confidence and stability. Yet when the sailors depart he reveals to Buttercup that he is deeply
troubled 7. His daughter is being sought in marriage by Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty, but she does not seem to take kindly to the match. After Buttercup’s departure, Josephine arrives and admits her reluctance to
be courted by Sir Joseph 8. The reason is simple: she is in love with someone else. The object of her affection is a lowly sailor on board HMS Pinafore; but she assures her shocked father that she will not pursue a liaison with one so ignobly born.
11 Sir Joseph arrives on board, attended by his cousin Hebe and an entourage of adoring sisters, cousins and aunts 9–11. Proud of his rise from humble office boy to his present exalted position, he relates the stages in his progress 12. He then inspects the ship’s company. He finds the Captain’s manner in delivering orders discourteous and says that the expression ‘if you please’ should always accompany instructions to the men: after all, they are any man’s equal – excepting his 13. Sir Joseph’s egalitarian views endear him to the sailors, who sing the glee he has composed to edify the Royal Navy’s lower ranks 14. After the crew depart, Josephine comes on deck. She meets Ralph, who has resolved to declare his feelings 15. Although he is the sailor of whom she spoke to her father, she forces herself into a show of outrage and disdain. Distracted, Ralph sees suicide as his only course and conveys his resolution to his shipmates and the visiting ladies 16. Appalled, they stand back as he raises a pistol to his head. Suddenly Josephine bursts in and, to avert the impending tragedy, declares her love to Ralph. Given the obstacles to their union, their only course seems to be elopement, and plans are hatched for a flight that very night. There is only one dissenting voice among those present. Dick Deadeye, hated by the crew for his appearance and surly manner, warns of the folly. No one is in any mood for his misanthropic utterances, however, and the high spirits soon return.
12 1 Entr’acte Disc 2 Act II aptain Corcoran, on deck, soliloquizes to the moon about his
troubles 2. Buttercup overhears him and offers a sympathetic ear3 . CClearly she is fond of the Captain. But despite his reciprocal feelings, he says that differences in their respective social positions make anything more than friendship out of the question. In response, Buttercup prophesies a change in store for the Captain: with her gypsy blood, she can read destinies. He must be prepared – for things are seldom what they seem. Sir Joseph, meanwhile, has been pressing his suit on Josephine, but without success. Corcoran, anxious to placate the First Lord, suggests that his daughter may be dazzled by her suitor’s exalted position. He suggests Sir Joseph might fare better if he were to assure Josephine that it is a standing rule of the Admiralty that love levels all ranks. The two men retire as Josephine appears. Alone, she expresses her misgivings at the irrevocable step she is about to
take 4. Sir Joseph joins her and, acting on Corcoran’s suggestion, proclaims his belief that love is a platform on which all ranks meet 5. That statement, ironically, removes Josephine’s misgivings about her elopement. Sir Joseph, however, unaware of how eloquently he has pleaded his rival’s cause, thinks her positive response a sign in his favour. The Captain, too, is extremely pleased. His hope of a marriage between his daughter and a cabinet minister may, after all, be realized. His elation turns to anger, however, when Dick
reveals the plans for the impending elopement 6.
13 The Captain lies in wait, but not for long: soon the lovers, assisted by the crew and Buttercup, appear on deck 7. They are about to leave the ship when the Captain steps out from hiding to challenge them 8. He is so incensed by Ralph’s presumption that he cannot control his tongue. ‘Why damme, it’s too bad!’, he exclaims, just as Sir Joseph and his relations arrive to investigate the commotion. They are horrified by the bad language. The First Lord dismisses the Captain, in disgrace, to his cabin. When, in turn, he discovers Ralph’s involvement with Josephine, the young sailor is similarly ordered away 9. The dramatic turn of events prompts Buttercup to speak and admit to a deed that has troubled her conscience for many years 10. When she was young, she relates, she had been foster mother to two boys, one of lowly birth and the other ‘upper crust’. Somehow she mixed the children up and, until now, had never admitted this terrible error. However, it is now imperative that the truth be told: the well-born baby was Ralph; the Captain was the other. Amazed by this news, Sir Joseph calls for Ralph and Corcoran to be brought before him. Ralph is now dressed in a captain’s uniform and Corcoran wearing the uniform of an able seaman 11. With the social tables thus turned, Sir Joseph loses all interest in marriage with Josephine: she is now no more than a humble seaman’s daughter. Instead, he resigns himself to a union with the attentive Hebe. For Ralph and Josephine the reversal removes all obstacles, as it does for able seaman Corcoran and his Little Buttercup. © David Russell Hulme, 2016
14 Richard Egarr conductor
Richard Egarr studied at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, as organ scholar at Clare College, Cambridge, and with Gustav and Marie Leonhardt. In 2006 he became Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, with which he has performed at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and Palais de Versailles, and toured to Japan, Korea, China and Australia. Since establishing the Choir of the Academy of Ancient Music, he has placed operas and oratorios at the heart of his repertory: notable recent performances include Mozart’s La finta giardiniera in concert at the Barbican, London, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; L’Orfeo at the Barbican; and Semele in Rotterdam. Egarr regularly conducts other leading period-instrument ensembles, including the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, and Portland Baroque. Increasingly in demand to conduct non-period orchestras, he has been Associate Artist of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since 2011 and Principal Guest Conductor of Het Residentie Orchestra, The Hague, since 2013; he has also conducted the Dallas Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras, the Berlin Konzerthausorchester and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Also a noted harpsichordist, he gives recitals at major venues and records extensively. He teaches at the Amsterdam Conservatory and is a visiting artist at the Juilliard School, New York. He also collaborates frequently with the Britten–Pears Foundation and the Netherlands Opera Academy.
15 Scottish Opera
cottish Opera was founded by Sir Alexander Gibson in 1962 and was inaugurated with a production of Madama Butterfly at the SKing’s Theatre, Glasgow. In 1974 it bought the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, which reopened in 1975 as Scotland’s first national opera house. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera was founded in 1980. The company’s notable achievements include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Inés de Castro at the 1996 Edinburgh International Festival, and complete Ring cycles at the 2003 Edinburgh International Festival, which won the 2004 South Bank Show Award for Best Opera Production. Recent commissions include Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland (2008– 10) and Craig Armstrong’s The Lady from the Sea, James MacMillan’s Clemency and the double bill of Huw Watkins’s In the Locked Room and Stuart MacRae’s Ghost Patrol, which had their premieres at the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival (Ghost Patrol won a South Bank Sky Arts Award). In 2016, Scottish Opera premiered The Devil Inside, its third commission from composer Stuart MacRae and librettist Louise Welsh. Scottish Opera is Scottish Opera aims to bring the widest range of opera, performed core funded by to the highest standards, to the maximum audience throughout Scotland and the UK. Each year it performs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness and dozens of other theatres, village halls and community centres across Scotland. It also operates an extensive programme of outreach and education work involving over 10,000 schoolchildren every year, as well as many other activities, including adult learning and the Unwrapped taster sessions.
16 Photograph by James Glossop General Director The Orchestra of Alex Reedijk Scottish Opera Music Director Stuart Stratford Violin I Music Advisor Anthony Moffat leader Sir Thomas Allen CBE Frances Pryce Founder Katie Hull assistant leader Sir Alexander Gibson Terez Korondi Patron Tim Ewart HRH The Duchess of Gloucester Michael Larkin GCVO Gemma O’Keeffe President Sian Holding Lady Veronica Gibson CBE Anne Simpson Vice-Presidents Sharon Haslam Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC Colin J.S. McClatchie FRSE Violin II Professor Sir Duncan Rice Angus Ramsay* John Wallace CBE Giulia Bizzi John Robinson Board of Directors Helena Zambrano Quispe Peter Lawson chairman Malcolm Ross Shields Henderson vice-chair Liz Reeves John McCormick vice-chair Kirsty Orton Tony Burton OBE Susan Henderson Sir John Elvidge KCB FRSE Dominic Fry Viola Trevor Hatton Lev Atlas* Andrew Lockyer Rachel Davis Colin McCallum Mary Ward Professor Dorothy Miell Shelagh McKail Stuart Patrick Alison Hastie Alex Reedijk Ian Swift
18 Cello Trombone Mezzo-soprano Ben Rogerson† Michael Buchanan* Kristin Finnigan Marie Connell Ann Hetherington Aline Gow Bass trombone Fiona Macdonald Sarah Harrington Christopher Stearn Julie Martin-Carter Susan Dance Karen Murray Percussion Frances Newman Double bass Jay Allen* Sarah Shorter Peter Fry* Christine Sjolander Tom Berry Timpani Grace Wain Christopher Freeman Ruari Donaldson* Tenor Flute * Section Principal Raymond Armstrong Richard Blake* † Guest Section Principal Jonathan Cooke Sarah Bennett Bruce Davis Angus McAllister Oboe The Chorus of Declan McCusker Amy Turner* HMS Pinafore Adam Magee Patrick Mundy Clarinet Derek Clark chorus master Fraser Simpson Nicholas Ross* Cailean Swainson Lawrence Gill Soprano Cliona Cassidy Bass Bassoon Sandra Haxton Paul Anwyl Janet Bloxwich* Daisy Henderson Francis Church Emily Mitchell Steven Faughey Horn Frances Morrison-Allen Phil Gault Sue Baxendale* Megan Read Simon Hannigan David Pryce Deborah Rudden David Morrison Marcella Walsh Chris Nairne Cornet Jenny Wilson-Best Douglas Nairne Darren Moore† Jonathan Sedgwick Simon Bird
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