Opera Reviews
29 March 2024
Untitled Document

All's well that ends well in the town of Titipu



by Catriona Graham
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado
Scottish Opera
May 2016

Here’s a pretty how-de-do. Scottish Opera is in the town of Titipu – somewhere in Victorian England – specifically, in what looks like a music hall where Koko the Magician is performing the box trick in front of a black and gold Japanese back-cloth. The man in the box loses his head …

After the overture, the curtain re-opens to show a double rank of jars, with heads sticking out, which announce they are gentlemen of Japan. And here comes a Wandering Minstrel, a one-man-band with drum, trombone and hooters. It’s Nanki-Poo, who entertains the gentlemen till Basil Fawlty arrives in Japanised pith helmet, safari jacket and jodhpurs, brandishing quasi-Morse flags in a variety of red and white designs – that’s Pish-Tush, a nobleman.

The gentlemen re-appear in pleated hakuma trousers, dress shirts, tailcoats and toppers. Meanwhile Pooh-Bah, in grey hakuma trousers and waistcoat, is listing his offices of state. Koko, the Lord High Executioner, is more colourfully dressed – he was a cheap tailor before his elevation.

Richard Suart plays Koko in a cockney accent, contrasting with the more genteel accents of the rest. His little list of those who won’t be missed contains sufficient topical references to remind us that Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado is a satire on contemporary mores.

The three little maids wear kimonos over black and white striped bloomers, while the train of little ladies are in flouncy dresses – perfect for improvising can-cans.

Dick Bird’s designs owe more to Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy than to ukiyo-e prints. Er, actually, isn’t that Katisha arriving by boat in front of Hokusai’s Great Wave at Kanagawa? More elegant Goth than Ugly Sister, Rebecca de Pont Davies stalks across the stage, yet manages to elicit some of our sympathy for her soliloquy on lost love – before throwing it away for revenge.

Nicholas Sharratt is an engaging Nanki-Poo, his singing vastly superior to his trombone-playing. In flirting with Yum-Yum, Koko’s ward, he is risking death, but who can blame him, when she is so pert and pretty, not to mention her endearing squeak. Her fellow-ward Pitti-Sing (Sioned Gwen Davies) would probably be described as ‘fast’. However, director Martyn Lloyd-Evans resists the temptations of symmetry and does not pair-off her and the third ward Peep-Bo (Emma Kerr) with Pooh-Bah (Andrew Shore) and Pish-Tush (Ben McAteer).  

Koko having received instructions from the Mikado to execute someone within the month or die himself, Nanki-Poo offers himself, on condition he marries Yum-Yum. Thus, a very-pleased-with-herself Yum-Yum compares herself (favourably) with the sun and moon – smugly sung by Rebecca Bottone.

Look – there’s the Mikado, in white trousers and gold-braided jacket, disembarking from a gun-boat with Katisha. Stephen Richardson, in full kabuki make-up, is a humorous Mikado indeed. The convolutions of the plot and dialogue are resolved in the end, Katisha having fallen big-time for Koko; it’s amazing how a sentimental ballad and a tit willow puppet can charm.

Conductor Derek Clark keeps all in balance, ensuring that Sullivan’s music is played and sung with charm, clarity and a feel for this most British of operas.

Text © Catriona Graham
Photo © James Glossop
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