A concert version of a classic comic opera set in Japan more than 130 years ago will get an airing in Whangārei tomorrow when the Whangārei Choral Society puts on its production of The Mikado.
The society's concert version of the two-act opera will be performed at the Saint John's Golden Church Centre, 149 Kamo Rd, Kensington, Whangārei, tomorrow from 2.30pm-4.30pm. It is the society's second concert for the year.
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 14 operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London.
Setting the opera in Japan, an exotic locale far away from Britain, allowed Gilbert to satirise British politics and institutions more freely by disguising them as Japanese.
Gilbert used foreign or fictional locales in several operas, including The Mikado, Princess Ida, The Gondoliers, Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke, to soften the impact of his pointed satire of British institutions.
