When the Japanese sword fell from Gilbert’s wall it suggested to him the outline for an entirely new opera, and he wrote to Sullivan to suggest the idea. When the rehearsals for the opera began there was already a Japanese village on exhibition at Knightsbridge.
Never slow to take an opportunity when it offered itself, a male dancer and Geisha girl were hired to coach the company as to the correct oriental manner and makeup.
The Mikado opened at the Savoy on 14th March 1885, when the curtain rose to reveal the town of Titipu, ‘like an enormous Japanese fan’. To paraphrase the innumerable critics ‘The Mikado’ was ‘frank’, ‘ palpable’, ‘magnificent’ and an ‘unbounded success’. So much so that one critic was moved to exclaim, ‘Sir Arthur Sullivan’s and Mr. W.S. Gilbert’s new Japanese opera, The Mikado, is subject to one disadvantage, and only one – the difficulty of getting sight of it. Such is the anxiety of the public to witness it, that, though the theatre were twice as large as it is, it would not suffice for the accommodation of all comers’
The Mikado ran at the Savoy until 19th January 1887.
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Our 2025 co-production with Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park
Learn MoreThe 150th Anniversary co-production of Trial by Jury, in a double bill with a new commission, A Matter of Misconduct by Emma Jenkins and Toby Hession
Learn MoreIn 2025, we will collaborate with Scottish Opera for a fourth time. We are co-producing a brand new production of The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár and, to celebrate our sesquicentennial, a new production of Trial by Jury.
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