The Mikado May 5, 2011

Join the Bakersfield Community Concert Association for The Mikado. The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players bring this opulent opera to the Rabobank Theater in Bakersfield.

Pre-Concert Music will be performed by Curran Middle School students performing West African Drum and Dance selections under the direction of Mr. Richard Rodriguez. Nigeria was part of the British Empire.

The Mikado is the most popular Gilbert and Sullivan opera, and arguably the most popular opera ever written. This opera has delighted audiences for more than a century, and spawned a number of imitations. But none were nearly as good as the original, which represented both Gilbert and Sullivan at the height of their creative geniuses.

The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, was produced at the Savoy Theatre on 14 March, 1885 and proved to be one of the most famous of all the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, running, as it did, for 672 nights.

The Mikado will be presented by the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. Now in its fourth decade of operation, New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP) is America’s preeminent professional Gilbert & Sullivan repertory ensemble. Under the dynamic leadership of Artistic Director Albert Bergeret, who has been hailed as “the leading custodian of the G&S classics” by New York magazine, NYGASP has created its own special niche in the cultural mosaic of New York City and the nation. Since its founding in 1974, the company has presented over 2,000 performances of the G&S masterpieces throughout the eastern United States and Canada, captivating audiences of all ages.

In The Mikado, or The Town of Titipu, the location is a fictitious Japanese town full of colorful characters - 3 little maids from school, a wandering minstrel, a hilariously corrupt public official, and a Lord High Executioner who may have a list of potential victims but is too tenderhearted to actually perform his duties. Beautiful school girl Yum-Yum loves the romantic minstrel Nanki-Poo but is engaged to Ko-Ko the executioner. This romantic triangle takes the usual course of thwarted romance, until the arrival first of the fearsome Katisha, claiming Nanki-Poo as her "perjured lover," and later of the emperor, or Mikado, himself - with his own list of punishments to fit the crime. In order to resolve the ensuing complications, Ko-Ko must use his wits to convince the most unattractive Katisha to marry him - in record time. That done, all other potentially dangerous circumstances are settled by the Mikado's all encompassing pronouncement "nothing could possibly be more satisfactory."

Official Website: http://www.bakersfieldcca.org