H.M.S. Pinafore is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation. The story takes place aboard the titular ship, H.M.S. Pinafore. The captain's daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Drawing on several of his earlier "Bab Ballad" poems, Gilbert imbued this plot with mirth and silliness. The opera's humour focuses on love between members of different social classes and lampoons the British class system in general. Pinafore also pokes good-natured fun at patriotism, party politics, the rise of unqualified people to positions of authority and the Royal Navy. Pinafore's extraordinary popularity in Britain, America and elsewhere was followed by the similar success of a series of Gilbert and Sullivan works. Their works, later known as the Savoy operas, dominated the musical stage on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade and continue to be performed today.
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
3114 BC:
The epoch of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, a non-repeating, vigesimal calendar used by the Maya civilization and several other Mesoamerican cultures, occurred. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar
1492:
The first Papal conclave held in the Sistine Chapel elected Roderic Borja as Pope Alexander VI to succeed Pope Innocent VIII. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_conclave%2C_1492
1828:
William Corder was hanged at Bury St Edmunds, England for murdering Maria Marten at the Red Barn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Barn_Murder
1952:
King Talal of Jordan abdicated due to health reasons and was succeeded by his eldest son Hussein . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_of_Jordan
1965:
Violent race rioting began in the Watts district of Los Angeles, lasting for six days and left 34 people dead and 1,032 others injured. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Riots
1988:
Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam and several senior leaders of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad formed what is now known as Al-Qaeda to continue jihad elsewhere around the world after the Soviet war in Afghanistan ended. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
propinquity (n): 1. Nearness or proximity. 2. Affiliation or similarity http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/propinquity
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
There is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence. --Robert G. Ingersoll http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll
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