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Setting the opera in Japan , an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert to satirize British politics and institutions more freely by disguising them as Japanese. Gilbert used foreign or fictional locales in several operas, including ''The Mikado'', '' Princess Ida '', '' The Gondoliers '', '' Utopia Limited '', and '' The Grand Duke '', to soften the impact of his pointed satire of British institutions. ORIGINS OF THE WORK Gilbert And Sullivan 's previous opera, '' Princess Ida '', ran for nine months — a short duration by their own standards. As ''Ida'' showed signs of flagging, producer Richard D'Oyly Carte realized that, for the first time in the partnership's history, no new opera would be ready when the old one closed. 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 for a new opera about a magic lozenge that would change the characters, which Sullivan found artificial and lacking in "human interest and probability", as well as being too similar to their previous opera, '' The Sorcerer ''. 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 his "lozenge plot" in '' The Mountebanks '', written with Alfred Cellier in 1892.) It would take another ten months for the opera that was to become ''The Mikado'' to reach the stage. A revised version of their 1877 work, ''The Sorcerer'', coupled with their one-act '' Trial By Jury '' (1875), played at the Savoy while Carte and their audiences awaited their next work. 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, 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 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, p. 22 Jones notes that "the further removed in time the writer is from the incident, the more graphically it is recalled."Jones, 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 neighbourhood. 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. 235-36 The story was dramatized in more-or-less this form in the 1999 film, '' Topsy-Turvy ''. However, even though the exhibition in Knightsbridge had not opened when Gilbert conceived of ''The Mikado'', the English craze for all things Japanese made the time ripe for an opera set in Japan. Gilbert said, "I cannot give you a good reason for our...piece being laid in Japan. It...afforded scope for picturesque treatment, scenery and costume, and I think that the idea of a chief magistrate, who is...judge and actual executioner in one, and yet would not hurt a worm, may perhaps please the public." Quoted at Lyricoperasandiego.com THEMES OF DEATH IN THE COMEDY ''The Mikado'' is a comedy that deals with themes of death and cruelty. This works only because Gilbert treats these themes as trivial, even lighthearted issues. For instance, in Pish-Tush's song "Our great Mikado, virtuous man", he sings: "The youth who winked a roving eye/Or breathed a non-connubial sigh/Was thereupon condemned to die —/He usually objected." The term for this rhetorical technique is Meiosis , a drastic understatement of the situation. Other examples of this are when self-decapitation is described as "an extremely difficult, not to say dangerous, thing to attempt", and also as merely "awkward". When a discussion occurs of Nanki-Poo's life being "cut short in a month", the tone remains comic and only mock-melancholy. Burial alive is described as "a stuffy death". Finally, execution by boiling oil or by melted lead is described by the Mikado as a "humorous but lingering" punishment. Death is treated as a businesslike event. Pooh-Bah calls Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner, an "industrious mechanic". Ko-Ko also treats his bloody office as a profession, saying, "I can't consent to embark on a professional operation unless I see my way to a successful result." Of course, joking about death does not originate with ''The Mikado''. The plot conceit that Nanki-Poo may marry Yum-Yum if he agrees to die at the end of the month was used in ''A Wife for a Month'', a 17th century play by John Fletcher . Ko-Ko's final speech affirms that death has been, throughout the opera, a fiction, a matter of words that can be dispelled with a phrase or two: being dead and being "as good as dead" are equated. CONTROVERSY; POLITICAL CORRECTNESS Not actually a Japanese opera To the extent that the opera is inspired by, and purports to portray, Japanese culture, style, and government, it draws on 's name, ''Ko-Ko'', is similar to that of the scheming Ko-Ko-Ri-Ko in '' Ba-ta-clan '' by Jacques Offenbach . Gilbert sought authenticity in the production, costumes, and in the movements and gestures of the actors. To that end, Gilbert engaged some of the Japanese at the Knightsbridge village to advise on the production and to coach the actors. "The Directors and Native Inhabitants" of the village were duly thanked in the program that was distributed on the first night.Allen, p. 239 in the title role]]The Japanese were ambivalent toward ''The Mikado'' for many years, not knowing for certain whether it was making fun of them or of the English. Some Japanese saw the depiction of their ruler as offensive, particularly its depiction of the title character, which was seen by some as a disrespectful representation of the revered compared it to Jonathan Swift 's '' Gulliver's Travels '': :Gilbert pursued and persecuted the evils of modern England till they had literally not a leg to stand on, exactly as Swift did.... 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.... About England Pooh-bah is something more than a satire; he is the truth. Lyric Opera San Diego site Japanese banned a 1947 Tokyo production, Time Magazine article but other productions went forward by permission of the copyright holders. In recent decades, various Japanese productions of the work have been staged in Japan. In 2001, the town of of Transliteration (in which the name of the town appears as "Chichibu") is usually found today, it was very common in the 19th century to use the Kunrei System , in which the name 秩父 appears as "Titibu". Thus it is easy to surmise that "Titibu", found in the London press of 1884, became "Titipu" in the opera. Other Japanese researchers have concluded that Gilbert may simply have heard of Chichibu silk, an important export in the 19th century. In any case, the town's Japanese-language adaptation of ''The Mikado'' has been performed several times throughout Japan. In August 2006, the ''Chichibu Mikado'' was performed at the International Gilbert And Sullivan Festival in England, Description of the Chichibu production and the same company continues to perform the adaptation on tour in Japan in 2007. Alleged racism and sexism In the song "As some day 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 celebrations, hence a tasteless woman who dresses like a Scarecrow ). These lines can be taken by modern audiences to have racist, sexist, or 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 further, 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 serenader" 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 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 contemporary infractions, such as not turning one's cell phone off before entering a theatre. ROLES as Nanki Poo]]
SYNOPSIS Act I
Gentlemen of the Japanese town of Titipu are gathered ("If you want to know who we are"). A wandering musician, Nanki-Poo, enters and introduces himself ("A wand'ring minstrel, I"). He inquires about his beloved, the maiden Yum-Yum, a ward of Ko-Ko (formerly a cheap tailor). One of the gentlemen, Pish-Tush, explains that when the Mikado decreed that flirting was a capital crime, the Titipu authorities frustrated the decree by appointing Ko-Ko, a prisoner condemned to death for flirting, to the post of Lord High Executioner ("Our great Mikado, virtuous man"). Ko-Ko was "next" to be decapitated, and the Titipu authorities reasoned that he could "not cut off another's head until he cut his own off", and since Ko-Ko was not likely to try to execute himself, no executions could take place. However, all officials but the haughty Pooh-Bah proved too proud to serve under an ex-tailor, and Pooh-Bah now holds all their posts — and collects all their salaries. Pooh-Bah informs Nanki-Poo that Yum-Yum is scheduled to marry Ko-Ko on that very day ("Young man, despair"). ]]Ko-Ko enters ("Behold the Lord High Executioner"), and asserts himself by reading off a list of people "who would not be missed" if they were executed ("I've got a little list"). Soon, Yum-Yum appears with two of her friends (sometimes referred to as her "sisters"), Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing ("Comes a train of little ladies," "Three little maids from school"). Ko-Ko encourages a respectful greeting between Pooh-Bah and the young girls, but Pooh-Bah will have none of it ("So please you, sir"). Nanki-Poo arrives on the scene and informs Ko-Ko of his love for Yum-Yum. Ko-Ko sends him away, but Nanki-Poo manages to meet with his beloved and reveals his secret to Yum-Yum – he is the son and heir of the Mikado, but he's traveling in disguise to avoid the amorous advances of Katisha, an elderly lady of his father's court. They lament over what the law forbids them to do ("Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted"). Ko-Ko receives news that the Mikado has decreed that unless an execution is carried out within a month, the town will be reduced to the rank of a village — which would bring "irretrievable ruin." Pooh-Bah and Pish-Tush point to Ko-Ko himself as the obvious choice for beheading, since he was already under sentence of death ("I am so proud"), but Ko-Ko protests that, firstly, it would be "extremely difficult, not to say dangerous," for him to attempt to execute himself, and secondly, it would be suicide, which is a "capital offence." Fortuitously, Ko-Ko discovers that Nanki-Poo, in despair over losing Yum-Yum, is preparing to commit suicide. After ascertaining that nothing would 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. Ko-Ko would then marry the young widow. Everyone arrives to celebrate Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum's union ("With aspect stern and gloomy stride"), but the festivities are interrupted by the arrival of Katisha, who has come to claim Nanki-Poo as her husband. However, the townspeople are much more sympathetic to the young couple, and her attempts to reveal Nanki-Poo's secret are drowned out by the shouting of the crowd. Outwitted but not defeated, Katisha makes it clear that she intends to return. Act II
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