H.M.S. Pinafore - Productions - Subsequent Productions

Subsequent Productions

After the opera became successful in London, Richard D'Oyly Carte quickly sent touring companies into the British provinces. At least one D'Oyly Carte company, and sometimes as many as three, played Pinafore under Carte's aegis every year between 1878 and 1888, including its first London revival in 1887. The opera was then given a rest, returning to the touring repertory between 1894 and 1900 and again for most of the time between 1903 and 1940. Gilbert directed all the revivals during his lifetime, and after his death, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company had exclusive performing rights to the Savoy operas until 1962. It continued to hew closely to Gilbert's directions throughout that period, as recorded in Gilbert's prompt books, and it also required its licensees to follow them closely.

Until 1908, revivals of the opera were given in contemporary dress. After that, designers such as Percy Anderson, George Sheringham and Peter Goffin created Victorian costume designs. In the winter of 1940–41, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's scenery and costumes for Pinafore and three other operas were destroyed by German bombs during World War II. The opera was revived in London in the summer of 1947. It was then included in the D'Oyly Carte repertory in every season from then on, until the company's closure in 1982. The D'Oyly Carte company performed Pinafore before Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family at Windsor Castle on 16 June 1977, during the queen's Silver Jubilee year, the first royal command performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan opera since 1891.

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company did not allow any other professional company to present the Savoy operas in Britain until the copyrights expired at the end of 1961, although it licensed many amateur and school societies to do so, beginning in the 19th century. After 1961, other professional companies mounted productions of the opera in Britain. These have included Tyrone Guthrie's 1960 production from Stratford, Ontario, seen on Broadway in 1960 and in London in 1962 and a New Sadler's Wells Opera Company production first seen on 4 June 1984 at Sadler's Wells Theatre, which was seen also in New York. Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera and many of the other British opera companies have mounted productions, as did the reconstituted D'Oyly Carte Opera Company between 1990 and its closure in 2003. In recent years, the Carl Rosa Opera Company has produced Pinafore several times, including in 2009, and Opera della Luna and other British companies continue to mount the piece.

The extraordinary initial success of Pinafore in America was seen first-hand by J. C. Williamson. He soon made arrangements with D'Oyly Carte to present the opera's first authorised production in Australia, opening on 15 November 1879 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney. Thereafter, his opera company played frequent seasons of the work (and the subsequent Savoy operas) until at least 1963. In the U.S., the piece never lost popularity. The Internet Broadway Database links to forty productions on Broadway alone. Among the professional repertory companies continuing to present Pinafore regularly in the U.S. are Opera a la Carte, based in California, Ohio Light Opera and the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, which tours the opera annually and often includes it in its New York seasons. Pinafore is still performed around the world by opera companies such as the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen; Australian Opera (and Essgee Entertainment and others in Australia); in Kassel, Germany; and even Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The following table shows the history of the D'Oyly Carte productions (excluding tours) in Gilbert's lifetime: