The ruler of Titipo, a city in Japan, "resolved to try a plan
whereby young men might best be steadied,
So he decreed in words succinct that all who flirted leered
or winked, unless connubially linked
Should forthwith be beheaded."
The citizens were understandably upset by this, so they
"then let out on bail a convict from the county jail,
Whose head was next on some pretext condemned to be mown
off,
And made him headsman for (they) said, who's next to be
decapited can not cut off another's head,
Until he's cut his own off."
And from this insanity, the story proceeds.
William Gilbert, the lyricist of this operetta, was an
unrestrained satirist, and while some of the barbs are unfortunately aimed only
at Japan (unfortunate since
it's all too easy to make fun of other people), most of the ridicule points to
his own society of Great
Britain and to societies in general. Though
written 150 years ago, most of the satire is applicable to our era, and needs
only a little revision to remove the racism and sexism (standard in his time
and place) and update some of the concepts to become completely relevant to
modern times.
There are several productions of Mikado, and they differ
widely in quality. Some take the operetta seriously, which I think is a deadly
mistake. You-tube has several to choose from.
The music, by Arthur Sullivan, doesn't compare to Beethoven
or Tchaikovsky, but it's lively and fun. Though I know most of the songs by
heart (I'm in the violin section of a Stanford production),
it still gets my pulse racing. As a workout movie, I give it ++++. It will frequently get your pulse up to a
run.
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