【Simon Butteriss】Major-General's Song 【轻歌剧】

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.

Alternative Titles: “The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu”
 The Mikado, in full The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, operetta in two acts by W.S. Gilbert (libretto) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (music) that premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London on March 14, 1885. The work was a triumph from the beginning. Its initial production ran for 672 performances, and within a year some 150 other companies were performing the operetta in England and the United States. One of its best-known numbers is Ko-Ko’s song “I’ve Got a Little List,” for which directors through a century and beyond have made a point of changing phrases to build in contemporary cultural references to those who “never would be missed.”

As in much of the Gilbert and Sullivan canon, there is sharp commentary in The Mikado upon contemporary English society. For example, Gilbert makes the character Pooh-Bah a government official in charge of everything (including complaints about himself), as a prominent man in a small English town might actually be. Similarly, the pivot of the plot—a law that condemns a man to death for the crime of flirting—can be seen as a comment on the outdated laws lingering in England at the time.

The music too is cleverly wrought. In his entrance aria (“A Wand’ring Minstrel I”) Nanki-Poo, the romantic leading man, declares himself capable of offering a song in any mood, from folksy to martial to nautical, and Sullivan set each of the subsequent verses to music of suitable character. Later, in a trio for three other male characters (“I Am So Proud”), Sullivan gave each man his own melody. These are presented separately, then combined into an intricate counterpoint that recalls the mastery of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Mikado may be a light and comic tale, but Sullivan saw no reason why the music could not reflect a serious level of craft, which is part of what raised Gilbert and Sullivan operettas above the standard of their competition and why their work remains popular.
Arthur Sullivan, in full Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, (born May 13, 1842, London, England—died November 22, 1900, London), composer who, with W.S. Gilbert, established the distinctive English form of the operetta. Gilbert’s satire and verbal ingenuity were matched so well by Sullivan’s unfailing melodiousness, resourceful musicianship, and sense of parody that the works of this unique partnership won lasting international acclaim.
 
 Sullivan was the son of an Irish musician who became bandmaster at the Royal Military College; his mother was of Italian descent. He joined the choir of the Chapel Royal and later held the Mendelssohn Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied under Sir W. Sterndale Bennett and Sir John Goss. He continued his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory.
 
 In 1861 he became organist of St. Michael’s, London, and in the following year his music to The Tempest achieved great success at the Crystal Palace. Then followed his Kenilworth cantata (1864); a ballet, L’Île enchantée, produced at Covent Garden (where Sullivan was organist for a time); a symphony and a cello concerto; the In Memoriam and the Overtura di Ballo overtures; and numerous songs.
 
 Sullivan’s first comic opera was his setting of Sir Francis Cowley Burnand’s Cox and Box (1867). An operetta, the Contrabandista, also on a libretto by Burnand, was produced in the same year. Thespis (1871), the first work in which Sullivan collaborated with Gilbert, met with little success when produced at the Gaiety Theatre. It was Richard D’Oyly Carte, then manager of the Royalty Theatre, who brought the two men together again in 1875; the result was Trial by Jury, which was originally put on as an afterpiece to an Offenbach operetta; it won instant popularity and ran for more than a year.

阿瑟·苏利文(Arthur Sullivan ）歌剧《日本天皇》剧照

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