![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_3368_2_print.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cThe New York Gilbert and Sullivan players were originally going to mount this production in 2016,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cThere was a great deal of controversy in the press, such that they cancelled the production and went into what I believe was just more than one year of consultation with the Japanese Cultural Association in New York, and came up with this approach to it that would be acceptable without being insensitive to Japanese culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prologue brings in some much-needed context without taking away from the original wit and comedy present in Gilbert and Sullivan\u2019s works. Mitchell says that it sets the scene up in a way that allows for a more Victorian take\u2014and less of an imitation of Japanese culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly does the job of setting up the premise of the show,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cIt basically sets the scene for the opera to take place in what the time was\u2014the current time in London, England, in the 1880s. So it\u2019s set in Victorian London with hints of Japanese to it. But it\u2019s basically English people enacting out what\u2019s going through Gilbert\u2019s mind as he formulates the Mikado in his own mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the prologue creates a framework for the opera, the rest of The Mikado<\/i> remains much the same, with no changes or additions to the classic music. This is a plus for Mitchell, who considers the music a huge part of what makes The Mikado <\/i>so enduring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first heard that we were doing this version, my first concern was whether they had changed the music, and I was very relieved to hear none of the music had changed,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly an element of a couple of places, because one of the principal characters, of course, is Mikado himself, the emperor. And so, when he\u2019s coming in, there is very much a Japanese element to the tunes. And it is actually a true Japanese marching song that Sullivan chose to use.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Mitchell hopes that there will be younger people in the audience to enjoy the addition to the opera, and that longtime Gilbert and Sullivan fans can appreciate what the prologue does for the opera without changing its essence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, we will have a lot of people in the audience that are still younger people,\u201d says Mitchell, \u201cfor future generations who either don\u2019t know The Mikado<\/i>, or don\u2019t know very much about it, and therefore they\u2019ll see it for what it is, as opposed to comparing it to the way we\u2019ve always seen The Mikado<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n