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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, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on March 14, 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, which was unprecedented for musical theatre pieces, and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. Before the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera. The Mikado remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera, ...Read More
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, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on March 14, 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, which was unprecedented for musical theatre pieces, and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. Before the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera. The Mikado remains the most frequently performed Savoy Opera, and it is especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has been translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history.
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.
Act I
1. "If you want to know who we are" (Nanki-Poo and Men)
2. "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" (Nanki-Poo and Men)
3. "Our Great Mikado, virtuous man" (Pish-Tush and Men)
4. "Young man, despair" (Pooh-Bah, Nanki-Poo and Pish-Tush)
5. "Behold the Lord High Executioner" (Ko-Ko and Men)
5a. "As some day it may happen" (Ko-Ko and Men)
6. "Comes a train of little ladies" (Girls)
7. "Three little maids from school are we" (Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing, and Girls)
8. "So please you, Sir, we much regret" (Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing, Pooh-Bah, and Girls)[12]
9. "Were you not to Ko-Ko plighted" (Yum-Yum and Nanki-Poo)
10. "I am so proud" (Pooh-Bah, Ko-Ko and Pish-Tush)
11. Finale Act I (Ensemble)
"With aspect stern and gloomy stride"
"The threatened cloud has passed away"
"Your revels cease!" ... "Oh fool, that fleest my hallowed joys!"
"For he's going to marry Yum-Yum"
"The hour of gladness" ... "O ni! bikkuri shakkuri to!"
"Ye torrents roar!"
[edit] Act II
12. "Braid the raven hair" (Pitti-Sing and Girls)
13. "The sun whose rays are all ablaze" (Yum-Yum)
14. "Brightly dawns our wedding day" (Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, Nanki-Poo and Pish-Tush)
15. "Here's a how-de-do" (Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo and Ko-Ko)
16. "Mi-ya Sa-ma" ... "From every kind of man obedience I expect" (Mikado, Katisha, Girls and Men)
17. "A more humane Mikado" (Mikado, Girls and Men) (This song was nearly cut, but was restored shortly before the first night.)
18. "The criminal cried as he dropped him down" (Ko-Ko, Pitti-Sing, Pooh-Bah, Girls and Men)
19. "See how the Fates their gifts allot" (Mikado, Pitti-Sing, Pooh-Bah, Ko-Ko and Katisha)
20. "The flowers that bloom in the spring" (Nanki-Poo, Ko-Ko, Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, and Pooh-Bah)
21. "Alone, and yet alive" (Katisha)
22. "Willow, tit-willow" ("On a tree by a river") (Ko-Ko)
23. "There is beauty in the bellow of the blast" (Katisha and Ko-Ko)
24. "For he's gone and married Yum-Yum" ... "The threatened cloud has passed away" (Ensemble)
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