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Vancouver Opera – HMS Pinafore

  • 30/04/2022 - 08/05/2022

  • Event Categories:Opera
  • 0
Venue
Queen Elizabeth II Theatre
Location
Vancouver, BC
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Performances

Sat Apr 30 | 7:30PM
Thurs May 5 | 7:30PM
Sat May 7 | 7:30PM
Sun May 8 | 2:00PM

Join us for a live experience of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comedic tale – HMS Pinafore. It is a delightful combination of forbidden love across class divides and the shenanigans that take place along the way. Poking fun at social hierarchies and packed with absurd characters, this wildly popular operetta delivers plenty of laughs and memorable music. This joyful production is directed by Brenna Corner and conducted by Rosemary Thomson and features the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Chorus.

Cast

Caitlin Wood – Josephine
Ernesto Ramirez – Ralph Rackstraw
Jorell Williams – Captain Corcoran
Peter McGillivray – Sir Joseph Porter, KCB
Megan Latham – Little Buttercup
Marcus Nance – Dick Deadeye
Hillary Tufford – Cousin Hebe
Luka Kuwabata – Bill Bobstay
Jason Cook – Bob Becket

Creative Team

Rosemary Thomson – Conductor
Leslie Dala – Chorus Director
Brenna Corner – Stage Director
Amanda Testini – Assistant Stage Director & Choreographer
JD Derbyshire – Libretto adaptation
Alaia Hamer – Costume Designer
Jimmy Rotondo – Scenic Consultant
Chris Malkowski – Lighting Designer

Synopsis

The H.M.S. Pinafore is a British warship anchored at Portsmouth harbour. Little Buttercup arrives to sell her wares to the sailors. Her vending is interrupted by the arrival of Ralph Rackstraw, a deckhand onboard the ship, who confesses that he is in love with a girl who is far above his social status: Josephine, the captain’s daughter who is supposed to marry Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty. Josephine tells her father she isn’t interested in marrying this man that she has never met. In fact, she has her eye on a cut deckhand, but out of respect for her position and her father she vows to never reveal her secret love.

Sir Joseph is spotted with an entourage of female relatives and reveals to the crew his masterful thoughts about the social ranks. Ralph takes courage from Sir Joseph’s equality speech and confesses his love to Josephine. Josephine, staying true to the vow she made to her father, spurns his advances due to the difference in their social statuses. Eventually Josephine relents and confesses her love, and the couple plan their escape and possible elopement that very night.

That evening, the captain is alone on deck, puzzling through the strange events of the day. He confesses to Buttercup that he would love her if only it were not for the difference in social statuses. Later, Dick Deadeye, another sailor aboard the ship (who incidentally has been working on a nautical children’s play), reveals to the Captain that Ralph and Josephine are planning to elope. The captain intercepts the couple, and in frustration breaks his vow never to swear. Sir Joseph, who cannot abide by such language, has the captain arrested. He then discovers Ralph was about to run off with Josephine and has him arrested as well. In response, Buttercup reveals her long-kept secret: many years ago, while taking care of two infant boys, one high born, one low born, she mixed the children up. The captain was the common-born child, and Ralph the child of privilege!

Ralph is the one of higher social rank and can choose to marry Josephine. The captain, being common-born, has no social standing over Buttercup and can marry her. Hebe, who has been admiring Dick Deadeye throughout the day, decides to make a go of it with him, and Sir Joseph decides that his own cousin (several times removed), would make a suitable wife and a celebration of the four couples ensues.

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"McGillivray’s rich and blooming baritone is, of course, the star attraction. His voice is always keenly focused, rock steady, with nary a wobble, and his enunciation is impeccable at every turn."
-Opera Canada

About

Saskatchewan-born, baritone Peter McGillivray is a seasoned performing artist who first burst on to the scene as winner of the CBC Young Performers Competition in 2003. A former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio and alumnus of the University of Toronto, he has also spent a season on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera (La Bohème & Capriccio). Recent credits include a Dora-Award nomination for Best Actor for the Canadian Stage’s The Overcoat, and work with Calgary Opera (Pagliacci, Moby Dick & Silent Night), Manitoba Opera (La Bohème), Edmonton Opera (Die Fledermaus, La Cenerentola, Hansel & Gretel), Vancouver Opera (Albert Herring, The Overcoat, La Cenerentola), Pacific Opera Victoria (Barber of Seville, Fidelio), Dallas Opera (Moby Dick), Opéra de Québec (Madama Butterfly, Le barbier de Séville), Opera Lyra Ottawa (La Bohème, Barber of Seville) & the Canadian Opera Company (Gianni Schicchi). His pre-pandemic 2019-20 season included stints with Calgary Opera (La Bohème) and Edmonton Opera (Marriage of Figaro). During the pandemic he has kept busy, recording Gareth Williams’ Rocking Horse Winner with Tapestry Opera, filming Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice for Pacific Opera Victoria as well as teaching voice at Laurentian University and hosting the weekly music program Vocal Point with Peter McGillivray on CKLU 96.7FM in Sudbury.

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