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The Mikado

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The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened on March 14 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances. Before the end of 1885 it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera. It remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera, and it is especially popular with amateur school productions. Indeed, The Mikado is possibly the most frequently played piece of musical theatre in history. This was the ninth operatic collaboration between Gilbert and Sullivan.

Lithograph from the Mikado
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Lithograph from the Mikado

Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from England, allowed Gilbert to satirize English politics and institutions more freely by disguising them as Japanese. Gilbert used foreign locales in several operas, including The Mikado, The Gondoliers, Utopia Limited, The Grand Duke and Princess Ida, to soften the impact of his pointed satire of British institutions. To the extent that the opera is inspired by, and purports to portray, Japanese culture, design and govenment, it draws on Victorian notions of the subject, gleaned mostly from the popular Japanese exhibition of the time in Knightsbridge, London, and the general British fascination with Japanese fashion and art that immediately followed the beginning of trade between the two island empires. The song "Miya sama", however, is a version of an actual Japanese song. Giacomo Puccini incorporated the same tune in Madama Butterfly.

It is also worth noting that many of the names in the play are unpronounceable in standard Japanese – but perfectly understandable as English "baby-talk". The headsman is named Ko-Ko; one pretty young thing is named Pitti-Sing; and the heroine is named Yum-Yum. The pompous officials are Pooh-Bah and Pish-Tush; and our hero, Nanki-Poo (which might be baby-talk for "handkerchief") is fleeing from the awful Katisha.

Contents

Origins of the work

Gilbert and Sullivan were considered to be in a bit of a slump at the time they wrote The Mikado. Their previous opera, Princess Ida, had run for nine months – a short duration by their own standards. For the first time in their partnership, there was no new opera ready when it closed. A revised version of The Sorcerer, coupled with Trial by Jury, played at the Savoy while they prepared their next work.

On March 22, 1884, Richard D'Oyly Carte gave Gilbert and Sullivan contractual notice that a new opera would be required in six months' time. Gilbert initially proposed a story about a magic lozenge, which Sullivan found uncongenial to his musical temperament, and too similar to their previous operas. It was not until May 8, 1884 that Gilbert dropped the idea, and agreed to provide a libretto without any supernatural elements. (Gilbert eventually found a place for the "lozenge plot" in The Mountebanks, written with Alfred Cellier and premiered in 1892.) It would take another ten months for the opera that was to become The Mikado to reach the stage.

Cellier and Bridgeman (1914) first recorded the familiar story of how Gilbert found his inspiration:

Gilbert, having determined to leave his own country alone for a while, sought elsewhere for a subject suitable to his peculiar humour. A trifling accident inspired him with an idea. One day an old Japanese sword which, for years, had been hanging on the wall of his study, fell from its place. This incident directed his attention to Japan. Just at that time a company of Japanese had arrived in England and set up a little village of their own in Knightsbridge. (Cellier and Bridgeman 1914, p. 186).
The story is an appealing one, but it is entirely fictional. Gilbert was interviewed twice about his inspiration for The Mikado. In both interviews the sword was mentioned, and in one of them he said it was the inspiration for the opera, but Gilbert never said that the sword had fallen. Moreover, Cellier and Bridgeman are certainly incorrect about the Japanese exhibition in Knightsbridge, which did not open until January 10, 1885, almost two months after Gilbert had already completed Act I. (Jones 1985).

Jones notes that "the further removed in time the writer is from the incident, the more graphically it is recalled." (Jones 1985, p. 25). Leslie Baily, for instance, tells it this way:

A day or so later Gilbert was striding up and down his library in the new house at Harrington Gardens, fuming at the impasse, when a huge Japanese sword decorating the wall fell with a clatter to the floor. Gilbert picked it up. His perambulations stopped. 'It suggested the broad idea,' as he said later. His journalistic mind, always quick to seize on topicalities, turned to a Japanese Exhibition which had recently been opened in the neighborhood. Gilbert had seen the little Japanese men and women from the Exhibition shuffling in their exotic robes through the streets of Knightsbridge. Now he sat at his writing desk and picked up the quill pen. He began making notes in his plot-book. (Baily, pp. 235–236).
The story was dramatized in more-or-less this form in the 1999 film, Topsy-Turvy.

Controversy

In the song "As Someday it May Happen," sung by Ko-Ko in Act I, the character goes through a "little list" of many irritations with his society (hence Gilbert's). One of these is "the nigger serenader and the others of his race." Gilbert's reference was to blackface minstrels who were white entertainers in makeup. Also included in the list were "the lady novelist" (referring to a particular type of novelist earlier lampooned by George Eliot) [link], and "the lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy" (where guy refers to the dummy that is part of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations, hence a tasteless woman who dresses like a scarecrow).

These lines can be taken by modern audiences to have racist/sexist/anti-feminist connotations, although they did not have the same connotations to the original Victorian audiences. To avoid distracting the audience with references that have become offensive over time, the lyrics are almost invariably modified in modern productions – at the very least, by replacing the word "nigger."

Gilbert himself started the tradition of replacing "the lady novelist" in revivals that he supervised, since by the early 1900s women writers were no longer "a singular anomaly." Many substitutions have been used, with no particular one becoming standard. Some productions go farther, replacing other snippets, a verse or the entire song with references to contemporary annoyances, political figures, and current events. As Ko-Ko himself notes at the end of the song, "It really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list, for they'd none of 'em be missed!"

The standard replacement for "nigger serenander" is the only slightly less obvious "banjo serenader." This was suggested by lyricist A. P. Herbert in 1948 at Rupert D'Oyly Carte's instigation, after the original wording elicited protests during one of the Company's American tours. Herbert also suggested what has become the traditional wording in the Mikado's song ("A more humane Mikado") in Act II, with the words "blacked like a nigger" being replaced with "painted with vigour" in most modern productions.

There are other references in The Mikado that that are sometimes altered simply to make the references more relevant to modern or non-UK audiences. One is Pooh-Bah's list of titles, which must be kept largely the same due to future references, but may be added to with modern positions, such as "Secretary of Homeland Security". Another is the Mikado's list of punishments and crimes in "A more humane Mikado", which might be made to include modern infractions such as not turning one's cell phone off before entering a theater.

The Japanese themselves were ambivalent toward The Mikado for many years, not knowing for certain if it was making fun of them (it wasn't) or of the English (it was). In recent years, however, some have apparently come to terms with the work. The town of Chichibu, Japan has performed it, and some locals even believe that "Titipu" was Gilbert's code name for "Chichibu," although there is no evidence of this. [link]

Roles

N. B. In rehearsal for the original production, Frederick Bovill, who played Pish-Tush, proved unable satisfactorily to sing the low notes in the Act Two quartette, "Brightly dawns our wedding day". (Pish-Tush's line ends on a bottom F.) An extra character, Go-To, was introduced solely for this scene. The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company continued this practice. Elsewhere, Go-To was and is often removed, and Pish-Tush reinstated into the quartette, played by someone with a sufficient range (or the F transposed up an octave – it is written as such in the score presented by [TLM], which claims to be copied from Sullivan's autograph score).

Pooh-Bah is also a rangy role. His solo work lies low, like a bass-baritone, but much of his ensemble work lies relatively high in the lyric-baritone range.

Setting

Synopsis

Act I

Leading gentlemen of the Japanese town of Titipu gather for an impending celebration ("If you want to know who we are"). A wandering musician, Nanki-Poo, enters and introduces himself ("A wand'ring minstrel I"). He has come to search for the maiden Yum-Yum, with whom he has fallen in love. Alas, the officious official Pooh-Bah informs him that Yum-Yum is to marry her guardian Ko-Ko, a former tailor but now the Lord High Executioner of Titipu. Yum-Yum appears with two of her friends (sometimes referred to as her "sisters"), Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing ("Three little maids from school"). Nanki-Poo reveals his secret to Yum-Yum: he's actually the son and heir of the Mikado, ruler of Japan, but has fled the court due to the amorous advances of the Lady Katisha.

Ko-Ko arrives and introduces himself ("I've got a little list") and rejoices in his upcoming marriage. His enthusiasm is cut short by receiving news that the Mikado will soon be arriving for a visit; as Ko-Ko is behind on his quota of executions (never having performed any at all!), this means someone must be executed at once. The others look to Ko-Ko himself as the perfect subject ("I am so proud"). Ko-Ko discovers Nanki-Poo, in despair over losing Yum-Yum, is preparing to commit suicide. After realizing that he cannot change Nanki-Poo's mind, Ko-Ko makes a bargain with him: Nanki-Poo may marry Yum-Yum for one month, if at the end of that time he allows himself to be executed. This happy arrangement is nearly spoiled by Katisha, who arrives and tries to claim Nanki-Poo ("Oh fool"). However, she makes such a bad impression on the people of Titipu that her words are drowned out by the shouting of the crowd ("For he's going to marry Yum-Yum"). But though all seems happily settled, Katisha makes it clear that she intends to return.

Act II

Yum-Yum is being prepared by her friends for her wedding ("Braid the raven hair"), after which she is left to muse on her own beauty ("The sun whose rays"). Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum share an affectionate scene, interrupted when Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah enter, and warn them of a twist in the law that requires the wife of an executed man to be buried alive ("Here's a how-de-do"). Nanki-Poo, threatened with the loss of his beloved, proposes to die on the spot, but when push comes to shove, Ko-Ko is a soft-hearted man who cannot harm even an insect. Ko-Ko instead sends him and Yum-Yum away, promising to send the Mikado news of a fictitious execution.

"His teeth, I've enacted, Shall all be extracted By terrified amateurs." (Cartoon by Gilbert)

"His teeth, I've enacted,
Shall all be extracted
By terrified amateurs."
(Cartoon by Gilbert)

-->
The Mikado and Katisha arrive for the promised visit ("A more humane Mikado"). Ko-Ko, aided by Pitti-Sing and Pooh-Bah, gives a graphic description of the supposed execution ("The criminal cried"), only to be stunned by the news that Nanki-Poo was in fact the Mikado's son! Facing a death sentence himself for executing the Heir Apparent, Ko-Ko pleads with Nanki-Poo to return. Nanki-Poo agrees – on the condition that Katisha is safely married off first... to Ko-Ko, of course.

Ko-Ko therefore discovers Katisha mourning her loss ("Alone, and yet alive"), and throws himself on her mercy. He begs her hand in marriage ("Tit-willow"). She agrees,("There is beauty in the bellow of the blast") and begs mercy for him and his "accomplices" from the Mikado. Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum re-appear, to Katisha's impotent fury, and the inhabitants all celebrate the substitution of marriages for executions ("For he's gone and married Yum-Yum").

There are two ways of interpreting the ending for this story. Either Ko-Ko is assumed to receive the short end of the stick by having married the terrible Katisha, or else Katisha is not as bad as she seems and she and Ko-Ko are truly made for each other. Directors have interpreted this ending both ways with equal success.

Musical numbers

Act I

Act II

Pop culture references

References

External links

 

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