The Flora L. Thornton Opera Program presents Pepperdine Opera: H.M.S. Pinafore

Music by Arthur Sullivan
Lyrics by William Schwenck Gilbert
Keith Colclough, Director
With the Pepperdine University Orchestra
Long-Tao Tang, Conductor H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan’s first major international success, and it continues to delight audiences today. The sharp wit of Gilbert’s text and the charm of Sullivan’s music are undeniable, even more than a century after the work’s premiere 1878. The action is set on the H.M.S. Pinafore, a British navy vessel manned by a hilariously polite crew. A lowly seaman and the Captain’s daughter are in love. While “love levels all ranks . . . it does not level them as much as that.”