HMS Pinafore Cast 2026

Sarah hails from Liverpool, England, and studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Since graduation, Sarah’s career has taken her all over the world, appearing for Mid-Wales Opera, Carl Rosa Opera, Lyric Opera Dublin, D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, Opera North, Opera Ireland, Birmingham Opera Company, Heritage Opera and Focus Opera. She has performed professionally over 20 leading soprano roles in opera and operetta, including Violetta, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Fiordiligi, Rosalinde, Queen of the Night, Hannah Glawari, Mimì, Santuzza, Donna Elvira and Donna Anna, Countess Almaviva, Gilda, Norma and Senta. She created the role of Mary Crawford in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park and the role of Gloria in Alan E. Williams and Ian MacMillan’s The Arsonists, an opera written to be sung in South Yorkshire dialect, which streamed live on the BBC.

Sarah was Artistic Director of Heritage Opera from 2011 to 2025, and has directed and designed over 40 opera productions for various professional and amateur companies in the UK, including Flatpack Opera (Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro), Chiswick Opera (Die Fledermaus, La Traviata) and Somerset Opera (HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance), and has directed for Midland Opera in Birmingham since 2012.

For the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival she sang Anna in The Merry Widow, directed Haddon Hall in 2018, The Pirates of Penzance in 2022 and The Mikado in 2024, and appears regularly as a singer onboard Theatrical Adventures river cruises. She is delighted to be directing HMS Pinafore for the Festival in 2026.

James Hendry stands at the forefront of young British conductors, with a specialism in opera that has taken him to many of Europe’s best opera houses. James has had an ongoing association with the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, and has conducted nearly every title in the G&S canon.

Growing up in Kingston upon Hull, he was one of the first students to be accepted onto the Yorkshire Young Musicians programme, going on to study piano at the Royal Northern College of Music and later as a répétiteur, earning a British Education Award for outstanding achievements during his studies and subsequently being honoured with the title of Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Northern College of Music. He went on to the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where he served on the music staff and was mentored by Sir Antonio Pappano for three years before embarking on an international conducting career.

Recent highlights include Verdi’s Don Carlo for the Finnish National Opera and Ballet (where he has recently returned to conduct Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera Festen), Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Royal Swedish Opera, and Puccini’s Tosca in a return to Staatsoper Hannover, where he was Erste Kapellmeister over four seasons. The 2024/25 season also saw Hendry conduct a new opera by Elena Kats-Chernin — Lene fliegt ins Zirkusland — for Philharmonie Luxembourg, and concerts for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen with a semi-staged production of Peer Gynt.