"A wand'ring minstrel I — a thing of shreds and patches" (1885)
Nanki-Poo's entrance song; he is the Emperor's son in disguise as a second trombone
Recording: Walter Hyde/Odeon Records · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Opera · Opera in English
The Mikado
14 March 1885, Savoy Theatre, London
Arthur Sullivan · libretto by W. S. Gilbert
A wandering minstrel who is really the heir to the throne loves the ward of a cheap tailor promoted to Lord High Executioner, in a Japanese town where flirting is a capital crime. The ninth Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration ran 672 nights, one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time, and remains by far the most performed of the Savoy operas. Its Japan is a costume, not a country: the targets are English officialdom, self-importance and the law.
How to spot them
- ▸The town of Titipu; a Lord High Executioner who has never executed anyone
- ▸A Lord High Everything Else who holds every office at once and takes bribes from himself
- ▸Three schoolgirls fresh from a ladies' seminary; an elderly lady claiming a much younger man
- ▸Flirting made a capital offence, and a decree that anyone unexecuted for a year shall be beheaded
- ▸Premiered during the craze set off by a Japanese village exhibition in Knightsbridge
Arias & moments — listen
"As some day it may happen that a victim must be found" — the little list of society offenders who never would be missed (1885)
Ko-Ko's patter song; the list is traditionally rewritten for every new production
Recording: Odeon Records · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
"Three little maids from school are we" — a trio of giggling seminary girls (1885)
Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo, 'filled to the brim with girlish glee'
Recording: Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
"My object all sublime I shall achieve in time — to let the punishment fit the crime" (1885)
The Emperor's song of humane torments, including billiards on a cloth untrue with a twisted cue
Recording: Richard Temple · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
"On a tree by a river a little tom-tit sang willow, titwillow, titwillow" (1885)
Ko-Ko's ballad of the suicidal bird, sung to win the terrifying Katisha
Recording: Columbia Gramophone Company, Ltd./Walter Passmore · Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
"Here's a how-de-do!" and "The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la" (1885)
The Act 2 trio, and Nanki-Poo's duet-turned-quartet after he is pronounced dead on paper
The executioner cannot behead anyone because he is himself under sentence, so he certifies a death that never happened (1885)
The central Gilbertian absurdity: an affidavit signed by the Lord High Everything Else in all his capacities
Quick-fire facts
- •Premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 14 March 1885 and ran for 672 performances — the longest run of any of the Savoy operas and one of the longest of any theatre piece to that date.
- •Gilbert told the story that the idea came when a Japanese sword fell off his study wall; the anecdote is almost certainly a decoration after the fact.
- •The Japanese Village exhibition at Knightsbridge opened in January 1885; Gilbert borrowed performers from it to teach the cast fan work and movement, and the libretto jokes that Nanki-Poo has 'gone abroad' to Knightsbridge.
- •Characters: Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner, Pooh-Bah the Lord High Everything Else, Pish-Tush, Pitti-Sing, Peep-Bo and Katisha.
- •'Pooh-Bah' entered English as a word for a pompous official holding many offices.
- •In 1907 the Lord Chamberlain banned it for six weeks during a state visit by Prince Fushimi of Japan, for fear of giving offence.
- •The Act 1 finale quotes the Japanese war song 'Miya sama' — one of the few genuinely Japanese things in the score.
- •Revivals include the Jazz Age Hot Mikado and Swing Mikado (1939) and Jonathan Miller's 1986 English National Opera staging, reset in an English seaside hotel in monochrome.
- •The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company held the performing rights until Gilbert's copyrights expired at the end of 1961.
Drill it — 10 cards
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Sources
- The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive — The Mikado — Introduction
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — The Mikado: operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan
- Michael Ainger — Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography