I have seen many productions of the Mikado and this is my favorite. It anticipated and solved the racial problem of the play long before everyone became aware of it. It´s musically brilliant and also hilarious. Gilbert and Sullivan´s masterpiece.
@@ignaciomoreno9655 Indeed. A Japanese prince saw the play in 1886 and saw nothing wrong with it. Another one made a state visit in 1907, and was displeased that the show had been cancelled by the British government to prevent a diplomatic incident. It's clear that, apart from the setting, the show has nothing to do with Japan and is, like most G&S plays, a satire on the Victorian society in Britain. That production makes it even more plainly clear.
@@ignaciomoreno9655 Quite right! The choice of Japan as a disguise for a trenchant satire on English society was surely for reasons of social similarities, f.i. rigid class differentiation, separation of women from men, repressed sexual energy seething beneath "proper" social decorum. No one has ever taken The Mikado for anything but a satire on Victorian England. Race certainly never entered into the picture. A modern parallel might be Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny), their late-1920s-early 30s blistering take on contemporary Germany, disguised under an American setting (complete with two numbers in English). Again, the exotic, foreign locale never fooled anyone, nor was it meant to.
It’s funny, while the Mikado has become less popular in the west, it’s actually gaining popularity in actual Japan. As usual, it’s the white people who get outraged over stuff of no consequence.
Watching Pooh-Bah dancing and singing "tralalala" will always make my day 1000x better
Dancing the Charleston was a nice touch.
Funny stuff. Leslie Garrett is great and her two colleagues.
Gilbert and Sullivan addre the best
Absolutely perfect. Thanks.
This is better than acid
Excellent production of a classic, does anybody know whether it is available of DVD ?
80% sure it's this production
I have seen many productions of the Mikado and this is my favorite. It anticipated and solved the racial problem of the play long before everyone became aware of it. It´s musically brilliant and also hilarious. Gilbert and Sullivan´s masterpiece.
If you understand it, there isn't any ratcial issue.
@@ignaciomoreno9655 Indeed. A Japanese prince saw the play in 1886 and saw nothing wrong with it. Another one made a state visit in 1907, and was displeased that the show had been cancelled by the British government to prevent a diplomatic incident. It's clear that, apart from the setting, the show has nothing to do with Japan and is, like most G&S plays, a satire on the Victorian society in Britain. That production makes it even more plainly clear.
@@ignaciomoreno9655 Quite right! The choice of Japan as a disguise for a trenchant satire on English society was surely for reasons of social similarities, f.i. rigid class differentiation, separation of women from men, repressed sexual energy seething beneath "proper" social decorum. No one has ever taken The Mikado for anything but a satire on Victorian England. Race certainly never entered into the picture. A modern parallel might be Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht's Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise & Fall of the City of Mahagonny), their late-1920s-early 30s blistering take on contemporary Germany, disguised under an American setting (complete with two numbers in English). Again, the exotic, foreign locale never fooled anyone, nor was it meant to.
It’s funny, while the Mikado has become less popular in the west, it’s actually gaining popularity in actual Japan. As usual, it’s the white people who get outraged over stuff of no consequence.
That is the version directed by Johnathan Miller, I beleive.
Indeed so
Awful and ridiculous.
Bloody Philistine !
Why thank you.
Idiotic remark. Satire is obviously beyond your understanging.
It’s a comedy