Original Listing Description

A rare original 1885 Savoy Theatre program for the D'Oyly Carte London first production of the brilliant Gilbert and Sullivan comic light opera The Mikado. Four pages. Dimensions eight and a quarter by five and three quarters inches. Edgewear at margins; a good reading copy. See the story of Gilbert and Sullivan and The Mikado below. Shipping discounts for multiple purchases. Inquiries always welcome. Please visit my other eBay items for more early Gilbert and Sullivan items, theatre, opera, film and historical autographs, photographs and programs, and great actor and actress cabinet photos and CDV's. Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known [1]Gilbert who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as noblemen who have gone astray.[2] Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies[n 1] that could convey both humour and pathos.[n 2]Their operas have enjoyed broad and enduring international success and are still performed frequently throughout the English speaking world.[5][6] Gilbert and Sullivan introduced innovations in content and form that directly influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century.[7] The operas have also influenced political discourse, literature, film and television and have been widely parodied and pastiched by humorists. The producer Richard D'Oyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration. He built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works (which came to be known as the Savoy Operas) and founded the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted Gilbert and Sullivan's works for over a century.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.[1][n 1] By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.[2]The Mikado is the most internationally successful Savoy opera[3] and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has been translated into numerous languages and is one of the most frequently played musical theatre pieces in history. The Mikado is a satire of late 19th century British institutions, society and politics. By setting the opera in a fantasy Japan, an exotic locale far away from contemporary Britain, Gilbert was able to satirise British politics more freely and soften the impact of his criticisms of British social institutions, in a similar way that he used other "foreign" settings in Princess Ida, The Gondoliers, Utopia, Limited and The Grand Duke. Nevertheless, some 21st-century productions of the opera in the United States have drawn criticism for promoting stereotypes of East Asians.

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