HMS Pinafore was the fourth of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera collaborations and their first international success. The focus of the operetta is on the British class system in general, with particular emphasis on issues such as unqualified persons being given positions of power and love between members of different social classes.

‘Never Mind the Why and Wherefore’ features in the second act. The singers are at cross purposes. Sir Joseph, the First Lord of the Admiralty, has the mistaken idea that captain’s daughter Josephine is overawed by his exalted status and is therefore reluctant to marry him. Sir Joseph assures her that she need not be concerned – ‘love levels rank’. Josephine interprets his words (also endorsed by her father) as providing justification to follow her heart and marry the man she loves, a lower-class sailor.