The Mikado remains the most popular of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, despite, or maybe because of increasing awareness of its monstrous racial caricatures. If you're among the few who don't know of it, check out plot, background etc on the wonderful GSArchives site .
OK, it's about Japan. Sort of. Premiered in 1885, (that's the poster above) the production was advised by Japanese Londoners. 'Cleverly satirizing British politics and institutions by disguising them as Japanese, the production also reflected the growing interest and influence of Japanese art, fashion and aesthetics on western culture.' No wonder it was popular in the US. It played in Japan in mid-1940s under the American occupation, was then banned - but after the ban was lifted in the early 2000s, was well received - arguably because it was once banned. The ongoing more modern debate about white actors in race-drag or yellowface had a production cancelled in New York (though interestingly the debate didn't include the horrific cartoon depictions of the characters in all productions.) There has been much less discussion of the awfulness of the female roles, and nobody ever comments about the vulgarity of the mock-Japanese names!
We're watching a much praised 1987 version by Opera Australia. Details and cast are here. Opera Australia had only just begun in 1985, and one of its first productions was The Mikado. This production was revived at the Festival of Sydney in 1987. Our leads are Anne-Maree McDonald (Yum Yum), Peter Cousens (Nanki-Poo), Gregory Yurisich (Poo-Bah), Graeme Ewer (Ko-Ko), John Germain (Pish-Tush), Robert Eddie (Mikado). Flashback to last week: Heather Begg again is the amazing contralto comic elderly woman - Katisha, this time.
Want to view a full version in your own time? There's an amazing re-mastering of the 1966 production by D'Oyly Carte with John Reed as Ko-Ko on YouTube - to view the full opera, click here.
Here's another topsy-turvy. In 1890 the Thai monarch saw The Mikado in Singapore, and two decades later his princely son penned a 'translation' that substituted China for Japan (then admired) and altered the plot accordingly! Read all about it here.
Is it unsurprising that this opera is widely spoofed in production - Jon English for Poo-Bah?
Or try the entirely English-spoofing production by Jonathon Miller - trailer here.,
Meanwhile, Check out the ways Poo-Bah entered our language here. And that's not counting Sam Slagheap in the Flintstones.
And the plot? How Topsy-Turvy can you get? As Pish-Tush puts it, 'Our logical Mikado, seeing no moral difference between the dignified judge who condemns a criminal to die, and the industrious mechanic who carries out the sentence, has rolled the two offices into one, and every judge is now his own executioner.' The locals have solved the problem of too many executions by elevating Ko-Ko from the next in line to executioner, arguing, ‘Who’s next to be decapited/ Cannot cut off another’s head/ Until he’s cut his own off.’ As Ko-Ko points out a little later, 'In the first place, self-decapitation is an extremely difficult, not to say dangerous, thing to attempt; and, in the second, it’s suicide, and suicide is a capital offence.'
And thus the plot thickens, the satire and brutal comedy softened by some of the sweetest of G&S songs (so long as you don't check the libretto!) - as pictured on this poster advertising the original production.
Now - about the libretto. As always, G&S is better if you know the words.
As the hit songs by Ko-Ko and the Mikado establish, this opera is replete with score-settling in wonderful rhyme!!
Full libretto is available from the wonderful GSArchives site - along with plot, synopsis and historical information.
The attachment below gives you lyrics to enjoy the witty words Gilbert gave to the most famous!
Lyn 6th Oct 2021