By
Angela Orlando
Arizona Summer Wildcat
UA Opera Theater presents Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta 'The Mikado'
Take one part British humor and add a strong fascination with all things Japanese. Stir in a love rectangle. Mix with unbridled singing and dancing. Bake for 115 years. Open the stage curtains. Experience "The Mikado."
"The Mikado" is a satirical comic operetta by the prolific team of Gilbert and Sullivan. The UA Opera Theater brings it to Tucson starting tomorrow night.
Opera director and UA professor of music Charles Roe directs the production; dance professors Melissa Lowe and Jory Hancock choreograph, and music professor Gregg Hanson conducts.
"'Mikado' is performed very widely around the world," said musical theater junior Sean Zimmerman, who plays Koko, the male comic lead. "It's very famous."
"I am the Lord High Executioner of Titipu," Zimmerman said of his role. "I normally play a very straight, romantic lead role. But Koko is quirky, mischievous and also a bit of a numbskull. Playing this part is giving me an opportunity to work on my comic timing, which I'm excited about."
"Mikado" promises to be funny and vibrant, in contrast to stereotypical operas.
"The basic differences between an opera and an operetta is that an operetta has dialogue and an opera usually doesn't," said Nicole LaMartine, a second-year doctoral student in music. "Also, an operetta usually employs comedy."
LaMartine plays Yum-Yum, "a young girl in love with Nanki-Poo but promised to marry an entirely different character, who is, in turn, in love with someone else altogether," she said. "She's fun, light-hearted and has an element of naivetŽ."
Vocal performance sophomore Jessica Gold also plays Yum-Yum - some major characters are taking turns performing.
"She's a sweet, young thing," Gold said.
Dance major Claire Hancock described "Mikado" as a complicated, intricate love story that includes arranged marriages.
"I don't really understand it all myself," she said. "I do know that the Mikado is the emperor of Japan."
Hancock is a dancing chorus member in the operetta.
"'Mikado' is a great production because the orchestra, dancers and singers are all working together, instead of separately," she said.
Roe, the director, employs tactics to make the subtleties of the tale more comprehensible.
"Every time I try to explain the story to people, they look at me and say, 'I guess I'll just have to see it.' It's kind of a complex plot," Gold said. "But (Roe) directs us to use effective gestures and inflection so we can be understood better."
LaMartine agreed.
"'Mikado' uses a lot of old British words we don't use today - words like 'ignominiously,'" she said. "(Roe) makes these high English lines accessible."
The ornate Japanese costumes are realistically traditional, Zimmerman said, and required extensive research by UA costumer Dorothy Dell.
"This story does not rely heavily on historical accuracy," Zimmerman said. "We aren't using accents - it's more like a farce. In the late 1800s, the English were enthralled by Japan, and Gilbert and Sullivan capitalized on that and wrote 'Mikado.'"
The cast is excited for "Mikado" to open.
"Rehearsals have been a lot of fun," LaMartine said. "Gilbert and Sullivan operettas always go through an evolution and I think opening night will be top-notch. I think the energy will be really high."
