Mikado, Friday-Saturday, February 24-25 8:00 p.m., Jesse Auditorium
Abstract
"Act I. The Emperor of Japan's son Nanki-Poo has fled his father's court to escape marriage to Katisha, an elderly lady who mistook his "customary affability" for romantic interest. Disguised as a troubadour, he arrives in Titipu, the home of his true love--the maiden Yum-Yum--to renew his suit. The flames of love have been fanned by the news that her guardian Ko-Ko, a tailor who intends to marry her himself, has been condemned to death for flirting-recently defined as a crime by the Mikado's (the Emperor's) edict. After Nanki-Poo convincingly passes himself off as a minstrel by performing a medley of ballads and airs for an assembly of nobles, he inquires after Yum-Yum. From one nobleman, Pish-Tush, he discovers how local bureaucratic ingenuity has circumvented the high command: Ko-Ko has been released from jail and has been installed as the Lord High Executioner on the theory that "Who's next to be decapited [sic] cannot cut off another's head until he's cut his own off." The corrupt Pooh-Bah, who has consolidated power by assuming many official duties and is thus known as the Lord High Everything Else, informs Nanki-Poo that in fact Yum-Yum is coming home this day to become the bride of Ko-Ko. The expectant groom now arrives with his retinue and proceeds to recount his remarkable rise to power. He concludes with a list of "social undesirables" who "never would be missed" were he ever forced to act in his official capacity."--Synopsis.
Table of Contents
Chorus , "If You Want to Know Who We Are" -- Air and Chorus, "A Wand'ring Minstrel I" -- Air and Chorus, "Our Great Mikado, Virtuous Man" -- Trio, "Young Man, Despair" -- Recitative, "And Have I Journeyed for a Month" -- Air and Chorus, "Behold the Lord High Executioner" -- Air and Chorus, "As Some Day It Might Happen" -- Chorus, "Comes a Train of Little Ladies" -- Trio and Chorus, "Three Little Maids from School Are We" -- Quartet and Chorus, "So Please You, Sir, We Much Regret" -- Duet, "Were You Not to Ko-Ko Plighted" -- Trio, "I Am So Proud" -- Finale, "With Aspect Stern and Gloomy Stride"—Act II: Air and Chorus, "Braid the Raven Hair" -- Air, "The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze" -- Madrigal, "Brightly Dawns Our Wedding Day" -- Trio, "Here's a How-De-Do!" -- March of the Mikado, Chorus and Duet, "Mi-Ya Sa-Ma" -- Air and Chorus, "A More Humane Mikado" -- Trio and Chorus, "The Criminal Cried as He Dropped Him Down" -- Glee, "See How the Fates Their Gifts Allot" -- Quartet, "The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring" -- Recitative and Air, "Alone, and Yet Alive!" -- Air, "Willow, Tit-Willow" -- Duet, "There Is Beauty in the Bellow of the Blast" -- Finale, "For He's Gone and Married Yum-Yum"