The critics praised the eccentricity and wit of the libretto but were critical of Sullivan’s music. The Daily Telegraph found ‘the music of the new opera disappointing’. Though the opera, based on material from three of Gilbert’s Bab Ballads, was a first night success, it did not take immediately with subsequent audiences and business was worryingly slow for the first few months.
However, Sullivan included a selection from Pinafore at the Covent Garden Proms and this seemed to work in popularising the score
Things were different in America. Pinafore was an immediate success. Companies, both amateur and professional, performed versions of the opera in halls and theatres throughout America. By the time Richard D’Oyly Carte brought the original version to New York in 1897 the words and music were as familiar as nursery rhymes.
Pinafore played in London until 20th February 1880.
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Our 2025 co-production with Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park
Learn MoreThe 150th Anniversary co-production of Trial by Jury, in a double bill with a new commission, A Matter of Misconduct by Emma Jenkins and Toby Hession
Learn MoreIn 2025, we will collaborate with Scottish Opera for a fourth time. We are co-producing a brand new production of The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár and, to celebrate our sesquicentennial, a new production of Trial by Jury.
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