Little Buttercup is described as the "rosiest, roundest, and reddest beauty in all Spithead".
Ralph Rackstraw and Dick Deadeye are Able Seamen; Bill Bobstay is the Boatswain's Mate, and Bob Becket is the Carpenter's Mate. Rafe is in love with the captain's daughter, Josephine, but her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
HMS Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration, and their first international sensation.
© Haydn Thompson 2021