Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore Sails into Eisenhower Auditorium
March 13, 2006
England's Carl Rosa Opera performs HMS Pinafore, a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera about the forbidden romance between a lovesick sailor and the captain's daughter at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 25, in Eisenhower Auditorium on the Penn State University Park campus.
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are on sale at $40 and $33 for an adult; $20 and $15 for a University Park student; and $24 and $17 for a person 18 and younger. For tickets and information, visit www.cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255. Outside the local
calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays; and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
"This is a show that not only brings to life one of Gilbert and Sullivan's great works but does so in a way that allows audiences to experience the delights of a 19th century production as well as seeing its relevance today,' writes a critic for Britain'ns National Business Review. "Lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan will be delighted with this production," adds a reviewer for the Worcester (England) Evening News.
Set in the late 19th century on the deck of the HMS Pinafore, while it is docked in England‚s Portsmouth harbor, the satirical musical concerns Captain Corcoran, his daughter Josephine, her suitor Sir Joseph Porter, her beau Ralph Rackstraw and a local bumboat woman known to the crew as Buttercup.
Ralph, a seaman aboard the ship, confesses to Buttercup that he is in love with the captain‚s daughter Josephine, a woman so far above his social standing that the notion of courting her is folly. Captain Corcoran wants his daughter to marry Sir Joseph, the first lord of the admiralty. Josephine, however, tells her father that she is in love with one of his sailors.
After Ralph threatens to kill himself, Josephine confesses her love for him. Ralph and Josephine make a plan to elope, but the scheme is foiled when one of Ralph‚s fellow sailors, Dick Deadeye, informs the captain of the plot. All's well that ends well, though, when a startling secret, which alters the outcome for each of the major characters, comes to light.
Carl Rosa Opera is Britain's oldest touring opera company. HMS Pinafore, with music composed by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by William S. Gilbert, premiered in 1878 in London.
Janet Fowler Dargitz sponsors the performance. Lite 94.5 FM is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, sponsored by the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council, provides insight from a visiting artist or local expert perspective and is offered free to ticket holders in the Eisenhower Auditorium Conference Room one hour before the performance. Free audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available at no extra charge to ticket holders.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379