About the Concert

T

he fifth annual Broomfield Choral Festival performance will feature Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado in concert. The event is free and open to everyone.

Concert Date:

4:00 PM - August 29 , 2009

Broomfield HS Auditorium

Rehearsals

Rehearsals will take place on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons in alternating weeks beginning July 8 (Please see schedule on the Singers Page.)

 

 

Rehearsal Location:

The Presbyterian Church of Broomfield, 350 Main St., Broomfield, CO [map]

The dress rehearsal and the concert will take place at the Broomfield High School Auditorium.

Program Notes

Not without reason is The Mikado one of the most popular of the long line of "Savoy Operas," for Gilbert's text is a masterpiece of comic writing to which Sullivan's ever tuneful music is perfect]y adapted, serving in a remarkable manner to set off the amusing character of the words.

The Japanese setting supplies a refreshingly colorful background, although, of course the characters are by no means Japanese, but ourselves in a very thin disguise. The Mikado was first produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, March 14, 1885. It was first performed in the United States on July 6, 1885, at the Museum, Chicago.

 

Nanki-Poo, son of the ruler of Japan known as the Mikado, flees his father's imperial court to escape marriage with Kati-sha, a plain and elderly lady to whom his father has ordered him to be married. Disguised as a traveling musician, he meets and falls in love with Yum-Yum, the young ward of Ko-Ko, a cheap tailor in the town of Titipu. Yum-Yum, however, is already betrothed to Ko-Ko – quite against her will it should be noted. Sadly, Yum-Yum returns to her Finishing School and Nanki-Poo leaves town in despair.

After a year of travelling about, Nanki-Poo finds out that Ko-Ko has been sentenced to be beheaded by the Mikado for flirting. Still masquerading as a musician, he returns to Titipu eagerly seeking Yum-Yum to ask her to marry him. He introduces himself to some town officials and, to his dismay, he learns that although Ko-Ko was indeed to have been beheaded, he was reprieved at the last moment and made Lord High Executioner instead. (As all criminals must be executed in order, and Ko-Ko is next to be executed, no one else can be executed until Ko-Ko cuts off his own head.)

As Nanki-Poo digests all this bad news, Ko-Ko himself arrives. He is awaiting the arrival of Yum-Yum, who is returning home from Boarding School at any moment for their wedding later that day. Yum-Yum’s timely arrival is accompanied by a bevy of school chums who are to participate in her wedding to Ko-Ko.

All but Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum leave to get ready for the big wedding. Nanki-Poo declares his love to Yum-Yum and reveals his true identity as son of the Mikado. Sadly, she reminds him that she is stuck with Ko-Ko, and Nanki-Poo declares that he would rather die than live without her.

Meanwhile, Ko-Ko discovers that he has received a letter from the Mikado who, concerned that there have been no recent executions in Titipu, threatens severe repercussions if one does not take place within a month. Ko-Ko is next in line to be beheaded, and, understandably, would prefer to find a substitute.

Ko-Ko comes across Nanki-Poo in the city park, preparing to terminate his existence rather than face life without Yum-Yum. Ko-Ko proposes that Nanki-Poo allow himself to be executed instead. The two men strike a bargain: Ko-Ko agrees to let Nanki-Poo marry Yum-Yum now, and, in return, Nanki-Poo agrees to let Ko-Ko behead him at the end of the month and marry the newly-widowed Yum-Yum.

The townspeople converge on the park and celebrate this solution until Kati-sha arrives. With some good detective work, she has tracked down Nanki-Poo and insists that he marry her as the Mikado has decreed. Kati-sha’s protests gets nowhere. She leaves furiously to seek help from the Mikado who is visiting a nearby town to see how the executions are going.

Yum-Yum happily begins preparing for her wedding to Nanki-Poo, but the preparations are disrupted upon Ko- Ko's discovery that, under the Mikado's law, when a married man is beheaded, his wife must be buried alive. Yum-Yum's enthusiasm for the marriage is suddenly diminished.

To spare Yum-Yum this grim fate, Nanki-Poo decides to kill himself at once. This, however, would leave Ko-Ko with nobody to behead—just as word arrives that the Mikado is at this very minute approaching Titipu. Nanki-Poo offers himself for immediate decapitation, but Ko-Ko is not equal to the task. Ko-Ko realizes, though, that he can accomplish the same purpose by swearing a false affidavit that he has done the deed, provided that Nanki-Poo leaves at once and never comes back. Since Nanki-Poo will not leave without Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko sends her with him, and the happy couple goes off to be married just as the Mikado enters the Titipu.

The Mikado arrives in his royal procession, and is delighted to hear that an execution has taken place. Being quite a conscientious ruler, he is eager to hear the details. Ko-Ko recounts a highly creative description of the execution.

The Mikado's visit, however, concerns another matter besides the execution. Having arrived at Kati-sha's prompting, he is seeking the whereabouts of his son. Unfortunately, this turns out to be Nanki-Poo, the man Ko-Ko has just testified he beheaded. Ko-Ko and his accomplices are declared guilty of "compassing the death of the Heir Apparent" and arescheduled to die after luncheon.

Ko-Ko’s only hope is to admit the falsehood of the affidavit and produce Nanki-Poo alive and well. Nanki-Poo, however, having already married Yum-Yum, is no longer free to marry Kati-sha and thus cannot reveal himself without risking both his own life and his wife's.

Ko-Ko is left with no other choice but to woo, win, and wed Kati-sha herself. Kati-sha is very upset over the loss of Nanki-Poo, but Ko-Ko pours on the flattery and charm. After a few attempts at playing hard to get, Kati-sha finally accepts Ko-Ko’s proposal, to everyone’s relief..

Nanki-Poo then returns to life and presents himself—and his new bride—to his father. Ko-Ko devises an explanation of his subterfuge that satisfies the Mikado, who commutes his death sentence to one of life with Katisha. Kat-isha adds her powerful pleas to the Mikado for everyone to be pardoned.

The Mikado, a bit bewildered by it all, nonetheless pronounces that 'Nothing could possibly be more satisfactory!'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert, pictured above, (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan, pictured below, (1842-1900) defined operetta in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works.

Their first major hit was HMS Pinnafore (1878), satirizing the Royal Navy and the British obsession with social status. Subsequent works poke fun at romantic melodrama, sense of duty, family obligation, the relevance of a liberal education, English law, and the House of Lords.

Their most popular work
was The Mikado (1885), where English bureaucracy was made
fun of in a Japanese setting.

Gilbert's plots remain perfect examples of 'topsy-turvydom,' in which primeval fairies rub elbows with English lords, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy and
pirates reconcile with majors general. Sullivan contributed catchy melodies which were also emotionally moving.

Gilbert's lyrics employ double (and triple) rhyming and punning, and served as the very model for such 20th century Broadway lyricists as Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin and Lorenz Hart.

Sullivan, a classically trained musician, devoted much of his career to religious hymns and
grand opera. In 1869, he produced his first large-scale sacred work, the hour-long oratorio The Prodigal Son.

Sullivan's Festival Te Deum in 1872, written to commemorate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from typhoid, pointed the way to The Light of the World, a full-length oratorio telling the story of the life of Christ.

Sullivan also continued to write for the stage. Early in 1875 when Richard D’Oyly Carte, a rising young impressario needed a short piece to complete a triple bill at London's Royalty Theatre. W. S. Gilbert had a libretto ready, but no composer. Carte suggested Sullivan.

The rest, as they say, is history.

As seamless
as their onstage collaboration was, Gilbert and Sullivan were temperamentally incompatible, and their partnership was frequently ruptured. Their last joint work, The Grand Duke, opened in 1896, and the sickly Sullivan died four years later.

Their works were originally produced by British impresario Ricahrd D'Oyly Carte, considered
by some to be the third member
of this partnership, who built the Savoy Theatre in London to present their operettas, and formed the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which would perform the Savoy Operettas with exacting detail until 1982.

The Gilbert and Sullivan operettas were even more popular abroad, and many American cities saw amateur and professional Gilbert and Sullivan performing groups. This trend has continued to the present day, and it can be argued that these operettas and The Mikado in particular were instrumental in giving the particular shape to American musical of the 20th century.

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