Introduction

Gilbert, Sullivan, D’Oyly Carte! Three great names from the Victorian era of musical drama. The Gilbert and Sullivan operas remain as popular now as they ever were when written over a century ago. They stir the imagination of audiences and performers (professional and amateur) like no other in the dramatic canon. Depending on your definition there are fourteen titles in the catalogue in total (including the now lost “Thespis”). “The Mikado” is probably the most popular of the ‘big five’ (which also includes “HMS Pinafore”, “The Gondoliers”, “Pirates of Penzance” and “Iolanthe”). Themes from any of these operas still have the effect of getting toes tapping and promoting whistling whenever they are played.

The name of D’Oyly Carte will be forever linked with Gilbert and Sullivan as will the Savoy Theatre in the Strand, London. We are fortunate that this National treasure is still available despite the calamities that have befallen it over the years and that performances continue to be given within it.

The plot

Nanki-Poo is the son of the Emperor of Japan – the Mikado. He caught the eye of an elderly matron at court – Katisha – who proclaimed him for her own. To escape this fate he fled the court and hid in the town of Titipu playing in the town band. There, he fell in love with a local girl called Yum-Yum (ward of a tailor Ko-Ko who wants to marry her himself) before going off on his travels.

The Mikado delivered a decree making flirting a capital offence. Ko-Ko, who had been thrown in prison and condemned to death by this time, is reprieved and made the Lord High Executioner. After all the logic said that Ko-Ko ‘… cannot cut off another’s head until he’s cut his own off.’ To complicate the issue the Mikado has threatened to reduce the town to the status of a village if no executions are carried out. Thinking Ko-Ko is out of the way Nanki-Poo returns to try to claim Yum-Yum but finds that Ko-Ko’s wedding has been arranged for that day. The town’s residents still do not know who he is. He threatens to commit suicide.

Ko-Ko sees his chance and persuades Nanki-Poo not to kill himself but allow himself to be beheaded in one month’s time . Nanki-Poo agrees but only if Ko-Ko gives up Yum-Yum and lets him marry her. Ko-Ko would still be free to marry Yum-Yum once she is a widow. Ko-Ko agrees to this but then discovers that the widow of an executed criminal is also condemned to death – by being buried alive.

At this point Ko-Ko suggests with connivance from Pooh-Bah (Lord High Everything Else!) they could issue a certificate that Nanki-Poo had been executed and this would suffice with the Mikado. Nanki-Poo must leave Titipu and never return. Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum rush off to get married.

Katisha appears, knowing that Nanki-Poo is hiding in Titipu. When she is thwarted she goes off only to return with the Mikado. Ko-Ko is delighted to tell the Mikado that an execution has been carried out. The Mikado is pleased but retorts that he has come to find his son who is masquerading as a bandsman in the town. Katisha then discovers that the death certificate has Nanki-Poo’s name on it.

The conspirators are condemned to be boiled in oil. Ko-Ko pleads for Nanki-Poo to reveal himself but with Katisha around he will here nothing of it. Ko-Ko finds that the only way to appease Katisha is to woo her and marry her himself. When she agrees she begs the Mikado for forgiveness for the conspirators. Nanki-Poo then comes clean and is reunited with his father.

Gilbert and Sullivan history

When the successful run of their opera “Iolanthe” was drawing to a close in 1883, pressure was on the partnership to produce a successor. Gilbert had always enjoyed the perverse twists (which he described as ‘topsy-turvey’) that featured in so many of their productions. He had an idea for a story based on a magic lozenge which when swallowed would turn one character into another. Sullivan always refused to have anything to do with this plot. As an interim measure they converted one of Gilberts plays into “Princess Ida” which ran for 246 performances.

Almost by accident, Gilbert alighted on the theme of the Mikado. There was burgeoning interest in the Orient and the Japanese were Westernising themselves. The twist here was a ‘Japanesing’ of the English. G.K. Chesterton wrote ‘Gilbert pursued and persecuted the evils of modern England till they had literally not a leg to stand on. I doubt if there is a single joke in the whole play that fits the Japanese. But all the jokes in the play fit the English’. Sullivan was happy as the plot did not contain supernatural or ‘impossible’ elements.

The play opened in London on March 14th 1885 and ran for 672 performances. It was a similar triumph in America despite pirated versions. D’Oyly Carte’s touring companies spread out across the globe.

The background

The initial stroke of inspiration is said to have come when Gilbert was striding about in his study. A large Japanese sword fell from the wall. At the same time, there was a Japanese exhibition in Kensington in 1884 which included a working ‘village’. Gilbert was captivated by this. There is on record a photograph that he took of a Japanese tea ceremony. He had silks for the costumes imported by Liberty’s of Regent Street. A Japanese woman working in the village (who could only say “sixpence please” in English) was hired to teach etiquette, the use of fans and the Japanese way of walking.

Gilbert makes a lot of reference to English brutality, Victorian criminality and the obsession with punishment in "The Mikado". Indeed the last public execution in England had happened just seventeen years earlier. There is a swipe at the political scene as well in the all-compromising character of Pooh-Bah, the Lord High Everything Else who will achieve anything so long as he is insulted with a large enough bribe.

Gilbert was unduly anxious about the first night and its possible reception. At one stage he cut the now famous Mikado’s song “My object all sublime” only to have it reinstated after a protest from the members of the cast and chorus. He was unable to stay in the theatre for the first night’s performance – trudging around the Thames Embankment – to return in time for the ovations at the final curtain.

Stage performances

'The Mikado' soon became popular with amateur theatrical companies in the UK and all over the world. My grandfather, George Cook, took the lead role of Nanki-Poo with the Leicester Amateur Dramatic Society. Several pictures from his season at the Royal Opera House, Leicester in 1923 are shown above. He also treasured a souvenir programme from a performance that he had attended in 1904 - barely 20 years after the opera was written. The photographs from "The Mikado": A Souvenir Programnme have been reproduced in these pages.

Given the popular longevity of this operetta, “The Mikado” is perhaps the most frequently staged of the Gilbert and Sullivan catalogue. It has also probably been subject to more modifications, plagerisms and updatings than any of the others (‘Hot Mikado’, ‘Jazz Mikado’, ‘Black Mikado’!)

I saw it performed twice, in two very different interpretations, a few years ago. The Carl Rosa Opera Company toured provincial theatres (including the Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne) with a “classical” staging and “authentic” costumes. The same company returned to Newcastle in October this year (2005) and it was that performance which spurred me on to revise and illustrate these reviews. The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company put on a much more modern and minimalist production for their season at the Savoy Theatre in London in 2000. Of the two, I have to say I preferred the former.

This is to some extent a continuation of a rivalry between the two Companies that dates back to the authors’ day. Carl Rosa was in operation first but tended to concentrate on the more ‘high brow’ production. Richard D’Oyly Carte set up his company specifically to produce and stage the G&S repertoire.

It is commonplace now for the song “I’ve Got A Little List” to be updated even on the day of a performance to include wrong-doers and malcontents of the day (particularly the politician and the performer). This tradition was begun by Gilbert himself and the libretti from the period contain a number of alternative offerings.

FOUR KO-KOs: "I'VE GOT A LITTLE LIST". (7)

Continued in column 2...

The songs

“The Mikado” leads off with a rousing overture that starts with oriental drum beats and proceeds to introduce the main musical themes. With one exception (“Miya Sama” – a Japanese Martial chorus) Sullivan avoided oriental influences in the music. It is riddled with songs and airs which are quintessentially English and that have become part of the musical heritage of the country. The opera is in two acts and is longer than some of its predecessors (about an hour and three quarters).

Of particular note are (Official title first, popular song name in brackets):

“A Wand’ring Minstrel; I!” – Nanki-Poo
“Behold The Lord High Executioner!” (incorporates “Taken From A County Jail”) – Ko-Ko with the Chorus of Men
“As Some Day It May Happen” (“I’ve Got A Little List”) – Ko-Ko’s patter song
“Three Little Maids From School” – Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing
“A more humane Mikado never did in Japan exist” (“Let The Punishment Fit The Crime” – The Mikado
“The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring” – Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko
“On A Tree By A River” (“Tit-willow, Tit-willow”) - Ko-Ko

The words and music of these songs are to be found on the Web Opera Pages of the
Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
(Clicking on the midi file on that page should open your media player and start the melody. To return here close the media player and then press the [BACK] button of your browser)

Other resources

My CD copy of “The Mikado” comes from the period when the D’Oyly Carte was the premiere professional institution for Gilbert and Sullivan. John Reed is in particularly brilliant form here as Ko-Ko. He played all the leading comedian roles over three decades (1951 to 1979) and was the fifth in a line of comic baritones going directly back to George Grossmith. His diction in even the fastest of the patter songs defied belief for its clarity. The other soloists are all highly competent in their roles. The orchestral sound is crisp, clear and bright.

This recording is one of a series featuring all the popular operettas performed by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company originally released by DECCA on the London label. This recording features the musical libretto but without the words. My CD copy comes from 1985 and is still in print. It is an Analogue to Digital Remaster. I can heartily recommend it.

THE MIKADO - Gilbert & Sullivan (1973)

The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Conducted by Royston Nash.
Soloists: John Reed (Ko-Ko); Colin Wright (Nanki-Poo)
Kenneth Sandford (Pooh-Bah); Valerie Masterson (Yum-Yum)
John Ayldon (The Mikado); Lyndsie Holland (Katisha)
CD: LONDON 417296-2

LIBRETTO

“The Mikado” or “The Town of Titipu”.
International Music Publications Ltd (1993)

THE VIDEO

There is a full series of specially staged productions (originally by the BBC in 1982) which is offered both a single DVDs and as a boxed set from Amazon (America). The series took guest stars (actors and comedians) and added a professional orchestra and chorus. These are available only as Region 1 discs. As far as I am aware there is no other complete set of performances.

“The Mikado” in general is a very reasonable offering and adheres faithfully to the libretto. Clive Revill (a New Zealand actor who has played many supporting roles in films such as “Modesty Blaise” and “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”) is quite brilliant in the role of Ko-Ko. The Mikado is played by William Conrad (1920 – 1994) - remember him as the TV detective Frank Cannon? He is hopelessly miscast, cannot sing and was given little to do except stand and give imperious scowls.

“THE MIKADO” – Acorn Media (2002) DVD

I also have a (now rare) film performance staged by the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Buxton Festival in Derbyshire (1992). Fenton Gray is quite memorable as Ko-Ko making a towering entrance on stilts in a huge ceremonial constume only to be revealed as “a weedy little chap” . Jill Pert is also excellent as Katisha. The scenery is bizarre with the chorus dressed alternatively as escapees from the Keystone Kops and then in Wellington boots and green plastic aprons.

THE CELLULOID BIOGRAPHY

Directed by Mike Leigh in 1999 the film “Topsy-Turvy” is a dramatisation of lives of Gilbert and Sullivan concentrating on the period that “The Mikado” was written. Costumes for the stage performances were said to be faithful replicas of those used by Gilbert. The film went on to win two Oscars.

This is now available on DVD. Gilbert was played by Jim Broadbent; Sullivan by Allan Corduner.

G&S trivia spot

There have many, many series of collectibles and memorabilia that have been issued over the years to celebrate Gilbert and Sullivan and their operas. My mother had a decorative plate of ‘The Mikado’ hanging on the wall for some years. This was one of a series of limited edition plates (hers was No. 212 out of 25,000) which were drawn and designed by Ian Fowler and made by Caverswell China Co Ltd in the 1970s.

I have not seen the full set of these plates but I have seen pictures of the ‘HMS Pinafore’ and ‘Pirates of Penzance’ issues. They do appear on eBay from time to time.

Postscript

The original title of this review (when it appeared on epinions.com) was "Here's a how-de-do!" - a quote for one of the songs. However it didn't look right after I had to cut the 'Special characters' which CIAO didn’t allow at the time! Therefore I had to use an alternative and went with "some Japanese words" sung by Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum and the Chorus to drown out Katisha towards the end of Act I. Gilbert does not indicate what they mean and I have not found a translation.

Footnote

The first version of this article originally appeared on CIAO on April 2nd 2003.

References

1. Sir Arthur Sullivan (detail of a portrait by John Millais, 1888; National Portrait Gallery, London): Student Britannica
2. W.S. Gilbert: The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
3. G.K. Chesterton: The Poetry Connection
4. Japanese Tea Ceremony. Photograph by WS Gilbert:
BAILEY. L: "Gilbert & Sullivan and their world" Thames & Hudson Ltd (1973)
5. Liberty's Art Fabrics. Liberty's of Regent Street:
BAILEY. L: "Gilbert & Sullivan and their world" Thames & Hudson Ltd (1973)
6. Three Little Maids From School: Original production:
BAILEY. L: "Gilbert & Sullivan and their world" Thames & Hudson Ltd (1973)
7. Four Ko-Kos (George Grossmith, Henry Lytton, Martyn Green, Peter Pratt):
D'Oyly Carte Picture Gallery at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
8. John Reed as Ko-Ko: D'Oyly Carte Picture Gallery at The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
9. Clive Revill. Star Wars Insider
10. William Conrad: IMDb (the Internet Movie Database): Earth's Biggest Movie Database

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Page added - December 5th 2005
Last updated - April 26th 2019

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