Disney designer moonlights on `Pinafore'.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

Ahoy, you landlubbers. The lads under Capt. Corcoran's command are scurrying about the decks of a brand new HMS Pinafore.

And what a beauty she is, too - long, sleek and massive. Queen Victoria peers down from the ornate poop deck. Lots of doors and stairs. Rigging so tall the tops disappear. Just what set designer Don Carson intended to pop the eyes of patrons attending the Eugene Opera this Friday and next Sunday for its production of Gilbert and Sullivan's popular comic opera.

"It's a big jungle gym for the director to play with that has the whimsy and tongue-in-cheek nature of Gilbert and Sullivan," says Carson, a Disney designer who has lived in Eugene since 1995.

It's also intelligent, humorous and - perhaps best of all for Eugene Opera - free.

Carson donated the design simply because he gets a kick out of designing sets for Eugene Opera, particularly for Gilbert and Sullivan's works. He also did the set for Eugene Opera's "The Mikado," as well as Eugene Ballet's "The Nutcracker."

"I'm a real Gilbert and Sullivan fan," he says. "I really love the clever lyrics, the music and the pomp-and-circumstance of it."

Eugene Opera artistic director Robert Ashens says Carson's passion comes out in the new set design: "It's gorgeous. It really evokes that late-19th century Victoriana kind of thing."

Carson's set is, in the words of director Frederick Reeder, "big." "It's massive," he says. "It's certainly going to dominate the stage. And it will give a feel of this whole thing taking place on this ship at anchor in Portsmouth."

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote their opera after visiting Lord Trafalgar's ship, the HMS Victory. Carson researched the same ship and found it boring.

"It was a beautiful ship, but it didn't give me a lot to play with as far as elevation changes - the deck was relatively flat - so I took artistic license and went for a mix between a pirate galleon and the Victory."

The most forward point of the ship is 8 feet tall. The stern towers 15 feet off the floor, with "two grand staircases off it on either side of the doors to the captain's quarters. Behind that rises the crest of Victoria, flanked by two lanterns. Lots of rope and rigging," he says.

If Queen Victoria peering down from the poop deck seems oddly familiar, it is by intent: a spoof of a popular coffee company logo.

"She has twin mermaid tails, which of course would never happen on an actual ship but which I thought was a nice wink and nod to the Northwest coffee drinkers," Carson explains. "I fell short of having her actually holding a cup of coffee."

Because Eugene Opera intends to rent the set to other opera companies, Carson designed it in modules that can be configured to a stage of any size.

Ashens hints more Carson-designed sets may be in the future. "I'd love to have the greater part of the canon of Gilbert and Sullivan in sets, props and costumes. We've done very well by our `Mikado' set."

CAPTION(S):

Queen Victoria watches over the poop deck. Don Carson drew the set designs for the opera.