In their operatic comedy “H.M.S. Pinafore,” Gilbert and Sullivan unabashedly lampoon the British navy and, at the same time, tell a rags-to-riches love story. The combination of such cynicism and romanticism has secured the musical team a place in hearts around the world, making their works the only pieces from their era that are still regularly played in modern times.

In Maine, people go wacko over the duo, so much so that there’s actually a Gilbert and Sullivan Society in Hancock County. On April 5, when the Texas Opera Theater docked the Pinafore at the Maine Center for the Arts, a full house of G&S groupies booked passage and took a lively and satisfying voyage.

The show, however, got off to a faulty launch. The first scene began without lights, and was quickly moored for repairs. Within several minutes, conductor Carol I. Crawford turned to the audience and said, “We know you liked the start of that number so much, we’ll do it again.” The audience quickly forgave the mishap, and cheered the orchestra and actors on to a swimmingly splendid performance.

Most of the generous applause was well-warranted. The voices were strong, the show was lively and, of course, the story was wonderfully witty. In true operatic tradition, the set was sickeningly sweet with sugary pinks and purples (aboard a naval fleet!), and the costumes were similarly saccharine. For diehard G&S fans, this must have been burlesque heaven.

The problems with the show were somewhat more subtle. The actors adopted phony (and unconvincing) British accents. This was particularly noticeable with John Vergilii who played the lowly seaman Ralph Rackstraw. Vergilii wasn’t exactly captivating as a paramour, either, and in most of the scenes, he was indistinguishable from the other stalwart sailors. Lee Merrill as Josephine, the captain’s daughter and object of Rackstraw’s desire, was filled with the ecstasy of true love and wore her smitten little heart on her satiny little sleeve. Unfortunately, this only served to emphasize Vergilii’s romantic deficit.

Dick Deadeye, a seaman of repellent aspect and dubious popularity, is perhaps the most entertaining of all the characters. As Deadeye, Raemond Martin was the most entertaining person on stage, and his fine character work made his performance most memorable.

“The high and the lowly may be truly happy together provided they love one another” seems to be the optimistic moral of this story. Of course, by an accident of birth, the lowly turns out to be the high, and the high turns out to be the lowly, and it’s more likely that this is the devilish moral of this jolly, seafaring tale.