While its efforts with grand opera often disappoint, the New York City Opera is quite proficient at mounting charming productions of lighter fare, as exemplified in the current run of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operetta, The Mikado.
Indeed, one wonders why impresario Sills did not obtain the complete D'Oyly Carte holdings of sets and costumes when that venerable company, established over a century ago in London, gave up the ghost and begged for a buyer. Lincoln Center may not be the last bastion of the British Empire, but the New York State Theater would have been a good place to house a living museum of that distinguished repertory, and have strengthened Sills' hand in the sustenance of her somewhat troubled company.
Those not acquainted with the delights of Gilbert and Sullivan should realize that everything they wrote and composed was thinly veiled satire of the Victorian era, though the settings of their operettas were often far removed in time and locale. In fact, the humor and wit in their works is nearly Chaucerian in its ribald concerns and often as amusing as the masterpieces of Restoration comedy in the parodistic lampoons of character. The Mikado has all this in abundance, as well as superb floral screen sets and colorful costumes by Thierry Bosquet, which evoke an Oriental flavor under John Gleason's pastel lighting.
Led by tenor David Eisler as Nanki-Poo, the heir to the throne of Japan; Claudette Peterson as Yum-Yum, whom he adores; Stanley Wexler as Pooh-Bah, the corrupt public official who shifts about under his multitude of titles; Joyce Castle as Katisha, the amorous spinster; and Jack Herrold as Ko-Ko, the pink-gowned, pigtailed Lord High Executioner; the cast is obviously having a great time in cavorting about, a sentiment that anyone who sees the show is likely to share.
Each of these five performers sings with distinction, though it is not always possible to make out the hilarious lines in their clipped delivery, for almost everything in the dialogue and lyrics is either ironic double-entendre or terribly funny self-revelation.
The story concerns Nanki-Poos's flight from the royal court of his father, the Mikado, for the aging Katisha has set her sights on the young prince and claims him as her own. In the province of Titipu, the heir-apparent assumes the disguise of a second trombone player and falls in love with the sweet Yum-Yum, who is the ward of Ko-Ko, who plans to marry the young innocent.
When word comes from the Mikado that unless Ko-Ko starts chopping off heads he will lose his own, he sets about finding someone who won't be missed. Since Nanki-Poo is ready to commit suicide because Yum-Yum is to be married to Ko-Ko, Ko-Ko talks him into submitting to execution, in exchange for which he can live as Yum-Yum's husband for a month. Complications arise when Nanki-Poo's identity is discovered, but all works out well in the end, and even the jealous Katisha is satisfied with her reward with Ko-Ko as the husband she has craved for so long.
The Mikado premiered at London's Savoy Theatre exactly 100 years ago and was an instant hit, which a number of other Gilbert and Sullivan collaborations, such as Princess Ida, Ruddigore, Utopia, Unlimited, and The Grand Duke were not. In fact, its
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