Year: 1939
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Country: UK
Language: English
The Mikado (less commonly called Town of The Titipu) is a comic opera with music by the famed Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S Gilbert. It is the most frequently performed Savoy opera, and it one of the most frequently performed musical theater pieces in history. Having first been performed in 1885, it has endured for over 120 years. Victor Schertzinger’s 1939 Technicolor The Mikado is the only G&S play to be brought to the silver screen.
The son of the Mikado of Japan (Kenny Baker), a wandering minstrel, falls for a girl who is engaged to her guardian.
In the 1930's Rupert D’Oyly Carte, son of W. S. Gilbert, was putting great effort into keeping the Savoy Operas alive. He had resisted granting film rights to producers likely to take Hollywood-style liberties with the material, but was ultimately convinced otherwise by the Company's former musical director. Director Victor Scherztinger kept the original words & lyrics of the duo, but made sweeping editing choices that would re-arrange the opera to make it easier to follow for a mainstream cinema audience.
Schertzinger, the man who famously composed the score for Ersnst Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929) was the right man for the job as his love for musical theatre meant that he would approach this delicate G&S material with grace and fine taste. As an audience we are transported into a colourful (Mikado was the first technicolor picture produced by Universal) world, rich in old theatrical traditions that sometimes make us feel like we're watching less of a movie and more of a stageplay.
I found myself impressed by the musical numbers, and although Kenny Baker is a less than ideal Nanki-Poo, I did love when he sang "Wandering Minstrel Eye". I was displeased with the cut of "I've got a little list", but the rest of the topsy-turvey musical drama made it all a worthwhile endeavor. This is a must-see for every fan of Gilbert and Sullivan.
No comments:
Post a Comment