BaL 27.05.17 - Sullivan: The Mikado

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Building a Library: Sarah Lenton recommends the best recording of The Mikado by Sir Arthur Sullivan. This evergreen Savoy Opera concerns the comic goings-on of a motley crew of characters. Ostensibly set in Japan, this Gilbert and Sullivan favourite is in fact a biting satire on British manners and customs.


Available Versions:-

2011
Richard Alexander (The Mikado), Kanen Breen (Nanki-Poo), Taryn Fiebig (Yum-Yum), Mitchell Butel (Ko-Ko), Warwick Fyfe (Pooh-Bah) & Jacqueline Dark (Katisha)
Opera Australia Chorus & Orchestra Victoria, Brian Castles-Onion (CD/DVD/Blu-ray)

Sadler's Wells Orchestra & Chorus, Alexander Faris (download)

1950
Margaret Mitchell (Yum-Yum), Martyn Green (Ko-Ko), Ella Hallman (Katisha), Darrell Fancourt (The Mikado), Leonard Osborn (Nanki-Poo), Richard Watson (Pooh-Bah), Alan Styler (Pish-Tush), Joan Gillingham (Pitti-Sing), Joyce Wright (Peep-Bo)
New Promenade Orchestra, D'Oyly Carte Opera Chorus, Isidore Godfrey

1957
Donald Adams (The Mikado), Thomas Round (Nanki-Poo), Peter Pratt (Ko-Ko), Kenneth Sandford (Pooh-Bah), Alan Styler (Pish-Tush), Jean Hindmarsh (Yum-Yum), Beryl Dixon (Pitti-Sing), Jennifer Toye (Peep-Bo) & Ann Drummond-Grant (Katisha)
New Symphony Orchestra of London, Isidore Godfrey

Anne-Maree Mcdonald, Graeme Ewer, Heather Begg, Peter Cousens & Gregory Yurisich
The Australian Opera Chorus & The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, Andrew Greene (DVD)

Donald Adams (The Mikado), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Nanki-Poo), Richard Suart (Ko-Ko), Felicity Palmer (Katisha), Marie McLaughlin (Yum-Yum), Janice Watson (Peep-Bo), Anne Howells (Pitti-Sing), Richard Van Allan (Pooh-Bah), Nicholas Folwell (Pish-Tush)
Welsh National Opera Chorus & Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras

1973
John Reed (Ko-Ko), Colin Wright (Nanki-Poo), Valerie Masterson (Yum-Yum), Peggy Ann Jones (Pitti-Sing), Pauline Wales (Peep-Bo), Lyndsie Holland (Katisha), Kenneth Sandford (Pooh-Bah), Michael Rayner (Pish-Tush), John Ayldon (The Mikado), John Broad (Go-To)
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royston Nash

Richard Angas (The Mikado), Bonaventura Bottone (Nanki-Poo), Eric Idle (Ko-Ko), Richard Van Allan (Pooh-Bah), Mark Richardson (Pish-Tush), Lesley Garrett (Yum-Yum), Jean Rigby (Pitti-Sing), Susan Bullock (Peep-Bo), Felicity Palmer (Katisha), English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Peter Robinson

The Mikado - Owen Brannigan, Nanki-Poo - Richard Lewis, Ko-Ko - Sir Geraint Evans, Pooh-Bah - Ian Wallace, Pish-Tush - John Cameron, Yum-Yum - Elsie Morison, Pitti-Sing - Marjorie Thomas, Peep-Bo - Jeannette Sinclair, Katisha - Monica Sinclair, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, Pro Arte Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent

2008
David Kelleher-Flight (The Mikado), Kyle Knapp (Nanki-Poo), Frederick Reeder (Ko-Ko), Dennis Jesse (Pooh-Bah), Boyd Mackus (Pish-Tush), Karla Hughes (Yum-Yum), Jessie Wright Martin (Pitti-Sing), Erica Post (Peep-Bo), Julie Wright (Katisha)
Ohio Light Opera, J. Lynn Thompson

1960
Robert Rounseville (Nanki Poo), Dennis King (The Mikado), Helen Traubel (Katisha), Barbara Meister (Yum Yum), Stanley Holloway (Pooh-Bah), Groucho Marx (Ko-Ko), Melinda Marx (Pepp-Bo), Sharon Randall (Pitti-Sing)
Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra, Norman Luboff Chorus, Donald Voorhees

Groucho Marx (Ko-Ko), Helen Traubel (Katisha), Stanley Holloway (Pooh-Bah), Dennis King (Mikado), Robert Rounseville (Nanki-Poo), Barbara Meister (Yum-Yum)Sharon Randall (Pitti-Sing), Melinda Marx (Peep-Bo) & Martyn Green (DVD)

[pastoralguy]

This is one for Mrs. PG! She's a big fan of G&S and will be listening.

Thanks for the list, Alpie.

[MickyD]

I've got the 1973 Decca set with the wonderful John Reed, but I seem to recall that the later Mackerras version had excellent reviews.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've got the 1973 Decca set with the wonderful John Reed

I had that on gatefold LP - a rather strange timbre from the Tenor, IIRC. IIARC, Groucho Marx not only sings Ko-Ko on one of the recordings, but contributes to the Three Little Maids from School trio.

My second public appearance as a performer was on Timps in this work - which led to five years' paid employment with the local G&S Society (which in turn gained the grudging consent of my father to study Music for "O" and "A"-level: he'd never thought anyone could make money doing a "hobby" unless they were "really good". Didn't believe in encouraging kids to "get ideas", my old man). And the 18-year-old Yum-Yum did things to my 13-year-old-hormones that they've never recovered from

Fond memories of this work - and I shall listen to the broadcast - but I don't think that I shall be parting with any money: I know the work so well, I could probably write it out! (But please don't challenge me to do that. )

[mikealdren]

IIRC the last time G&S came up, the Mackerras version was rejected for lack of dialogue, always an issue, we should really have recommendations with and without.

[visualnickmos]

Not really my bag at all, but I do have the EMI vinyl set (Sargent) which I did listen to once, after it was given to me way back in the 1980s. Strangely, I find myself quite looking forward to this BaL.....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

IIRC the last time G&S came up, the Mackerras version was rejected for lack of dialogue, always an issue, we should really have recommendations with and without.

I don't think any of the CD-only versions include the dialogue, mike - certainly the D'Oyly Carte (any of 'em), the Sargent, Farris (which uses a different Overture from the more familiar one), and Mackerras don't. (I don't know about the Ohio recording).

Somewhere in the dungeons of the BBC archives, there are Radio2 broadcasts from the 1980s of performances of (?most?/all?) the Savoy Operas, with dialogue, conducted by Mackerras.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've never really understood why the Decca D'Oyly Carte Mikados omitted the dialogue. They include it in most of their other recordings.

However, the Ohio one DOES have the dialogue.

[BBMmk2]

I like to hear G & S, every now and again. Great fun! This should make rather an interesting BaL!

[Beef Oven!]

I like to hear G & S, every now and again. Great fun! This should make rather an interesting BaL!

Agreed!

I’m quite keen on G&S. I’ve attended most (possibly all) of their operettas and seen 'The Mikado or The Town Of Titipoo' quite a few times.

[MickyD]

I've been fond of the score, ever since being in the male chorus of a school production way back in 1976. From my experience, it seems to me that amateur performers always have much more fun than those sitting in the audience!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

From my experience, it seems to me that amateur performers always have much more fun than those sitting in the audience!

(And professionals often do G&S so badly - deliberately "playing for laughs", which kills the fun of any kind of comedy.)

[Hornspieler]

I played a whole season with the Doyle Carte Opera company in 1956 at the Stoll Theatre under Isadore Godfrey* and also a brief couple of weeks on tour in that same year, so I got to know the artistes very well.
For quality of vocal performance, I would go for the following:

The Mikado - Owen Brannigan, Nanki-Poo - Richard Lewis, Ko-Ko - Sir Geraint Evans, Pooh-Bah - Ian Wallace, Pish-Tush - John Cameron, Yum-Yum - Elsie Morison, Pitti-Sing - Marjorie Thomas, Peep-Bo - Jeannette Sinclair, Katisha - Monica Sinclair, Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, Pro Arte Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent

For acting, I would have to go for those I knew and accompanied - especially Peter Pratt as Nanki Pooh.

Opera is both aural and visible.

With any opera recording, I can only enjoy it if I have actually attended a live performance on stage; so that I can visualize the set, the costumes and the acting as I listen to the music and the vocal performances.

I'm sure that many of us feel the same, where recorded opera, musicals or even ballet music, would agree.

HS.

* It was a tragedy that Godfrey's Assistant Conductor, William Coxe-Ife perished (along with that superb Pianist Clifford Benson) in the air disaster over Strumble Head, after appearing together as Conductor and Soloist in Ireland.

[BBMmk2]

Certainly Sir MS, knew his G & S!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Certainly Sir MS, knew his G & S!

There are other knighted conductors of whom it can be said "knew his G & T"