Scottish Opera - HMS Pinafore - The Sunday Times

Gilbert's satire on the English class system, political jobbery and hypocrisy, and the navy (Churchill's "rum, buggery and the lash" farcically sanitised), still resonates, and was a gift for Sullivan's talent for parodying Italian opera. That and its native tunefulness keep the score fresh, as this Scottish Opera performance under Egarr, recorded live at last year's Edinburgh International Festival, happily reminds us. Elizabeth Watts, Toby Spence, John Mark Ainsley, Andrew Foster-Williams and Hilary Summers lead a starry cast.