Love isn’t always smooth sailing

All aboard HMS Pinafore for this hilarious revival of Gilbert & Sullivan’s nautical love triangle.

Overview

Join Captain Corcoran and his daughter Josephine as she faces a battle between duty and love on the high seas. While her father makes plans for her to tie the knot with the suitably ranked First Lord of the Admiralty, Josephine has romantic ideas of her own. And after falling for lowly deckhand Ralph, the loved-up pair make plans to elope. That is, until a surprise revelation rocks the boat.

Discover more about the story of HMS Pinafore

Staging & Score

This laugh-out-loud opera, with presenter, writer and actress, Mel Giedroyc, is set aboard the Royal Navy warship HMS Pinafore. And while the ship remains anchored in Portsmouth, it didn’t stop the opera reaching international shores and becoming the first of Gilbert & Sullivan’s operas to find global success. Following its premiere in 2021, this Cal McCrystal production was nominated for an Olivier Award for Set and Costume Design in the Outstanding Achievement in Opera category.

With its fast pace, topical humour and quintessential Britishness, the score includes some of the most popular operatic music in the world, enjoyed both on stage and featuring in popular TV shows like The Simpsons and The West Wing. If quick-fire humour floats your boat, we think you’ll love HMS Pinafore.

Singers & Creatives

Following his success in The Yeomen of the Guard and Così fan tutte, award-winning British bass baritone Neal Davis returns to ENO to play the Rt. Hon Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Neal is joined on board by ENO-favourite and G&S expert John Savournin who reprises the role of Captain Corcoran, while his daughter Josephine is played by ENO Harewood Artist Henna Mun. The love triangle is completed by able-seaman Ralph Rackstraw played by Thomas Atkins fresh from his successful performance as Nemorino in ENO’s 2024 production of The Elixir of Love.

Also in the cast as a guest star is comedian, actor and presenter Mel Giedroyc. The former Great British Bake Off host and national treasure will make her ENO debut in an acting role in the production.

This first revival of a much-loved comedic tale is directed by theatre director and actor Cal McCrystal and conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren, former Mackerras Conducting Fellow who previously conducted ENO’s Olivier Award-nominated production of Blue.

This production has been made possible through the generous support of a syndicate comprising Olly Carpenter, Vincent Mercer & Mrs Anzo Francis, and Anne-Marie Shepherdson & Dev Joory.