Editor’s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about resources from the Parsons Music Library‘s collection.

Today’s installment of Arachnophonia is by student worker Emma R. (class of 2021) and features Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1885 operetta The Mikado. Thanks, Emma!

Gilbert & Sullivan

The Mikado

Gilbert and Sullivan remain known over a hundred years after their deaths for their light comic operas which have been reproduced the world over. Of their fourteen operas, The Mikado is one of the most often performed. The Mikado is a love story, a political satire critiquing the British politics of the day, and like all of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas, it’s a comedy.

The problem? The Mikado is set in a highly fictionalized version of Japan, a culture which at the time [Editor’s note: The Mikado was first produced in London in 1885] was not well understood by the British public. Traditional performances use costuming, makeup and stage presence in ways that today can be considered stereotyping and offensive, not to mention the fact that often, the singers performing in the opera are not of Asian descent. In the century following its original production, more and more attention fell on the problematic aspects of the opera.

This year, the music department at the University of Richmond is presenting the Tucker-Boatwright Festival in collaboration with Boatwright Library, which this year focuses on the representation of the “other” in music and the arts at large, titled “Beyond Exoticism“. An advertising poster for a course tied to the festival included this photo of a production of The Mikado, and the headline “so, what do we think of this?”

The photo above comes from the Seattle Times’ scathing review of a local production of The Mikado in 2014.

Over the years, a number of productions have attempted in different ways to approach the show in a different light to remove the problematic aspects. One New York production, for example, created a new prologue which suggests that the whole show occurs in the mind of a Victorian British person suffering the hallucinogenic effects of a head injury. Other productions have changed the setting, for example, to Renaissance-Era Milan, or to a 1930s-Era British hotel.

The Mikado raises a lot of tough questions about the proper place for historical musical and artistic works which today can be viewed as highly problematic or even offensive. I couldn’t possibly claim to have any of the answers. Luckily, Gilbert and Sullivan operas have a history of being open to modern interpretations, re-wordings, or re-settings, leaving the door open for future directors to present The Mikado as they see fit.

In the meantime, check out this audio recording from the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, the original producers of many of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas, at the Music Library, think about these hard questions, and come join this important discussion at the “Beyond Exoticism” events this year.