Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado

Arthur Sullivan (Artist), Sir Charles Mackerras (Artist), Anthony Rolfe Johnson (Artist), Marie McLaughlin (Artist), Welsh National Opera (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 11, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B000003CXW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,681 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best bargain for the price, September 28, 1999

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado (Audio CD)

First of all, this entire presentation fits onto a single CD, so you are paying 1/2 the price for starters. To make this happen, the producers have dropped the overture (which is one of the series' weakest and not even by Sullivan) and one stanza of Ko-Ko's "Little List" song. There are also a few bars missing from the Act I finale, but I cannot understand why. The voices are generally excellent, the conducting lively and completely in keeping with the joyous mood of this operetta (that is concerned with decapitation, boiling in oil, hanging, being buried alive, and other punishments that fit the crime). This is definitely <The Mikado> of choice--unless you insist on absolute completeness.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A digital Mikado set to eclipse all others, January 30, 2001

By 

Yi-Peng (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado (Audio CD)

With this groundbreaking entry in the new Mackerras series, we are drawn into a new and fruitful era of Gilbert and Sullivan recordings. Mackerras devotes himself fully to the cause of Gilbert and Sullivan, and with a flick of his baton before the Welsh National Opera forces, he produces delicious results, even from his starry, inspired, first-rate singers. Donald Adams is on top form and in his element in his solid, satanic and memorably cheerfully-positive portrayal of the eponymous comical tyrannical autocrat. It is really amazing how he has managed to maintain his touch with the role since he recorded the role for D'Oyly Carte thirty years before contributing to this recording, because he still manages to maintain his inimitable style. As his son, Nanki-Poo, Anthony Rolfe Johnson uses his Lieder-singing experience to give a lyrical touch to the role and a romantic edge common in Marie McLaughlin's petite Yum-Yum. The rest of the major cast use their experience of English National Opera MIKADO days to shine themselves, with Richard Suart's Koko a defining highlight. Suart gives a delectably comical, dry-timbred and attractively humane portrayal of the Lord High Executioner, and the freshness in his voice manages to give John Reed a run for his money. (Remember that Suart was with D'Oyly Carte at the time, so he must have improved on his portrayal there.) Richard van Allan gives Pooh-bah a haughty edge, and Felicity Palmer's Katisha is commanding, comical and satirical. The minor cast is as supportive as the chorus, and Mackerras conducts with more delectable skill and wit than Godfrey, judging tempi perfectly except in the Little List song which is a little too slow. The overall effect is more vuluptuous than any other available recording, even D'Oyly Carte's, and with Telarc's first-rate digital recording nobody can ever go wrong with this Mikado (or rather the whole series.)

This recording of MIKADO is not absolutely complete, but don't let this deter you from purchasing it. There are no instrumental movements - overture and fanfare - with the sung text absolutely complete, save for a cut of a few minor bars in the Act One finale and the second verse of Koko's little list song. That second verse uses the six-letter colour-related N-word that is as offensive to blacks as the four-letter sex-related F-word is to us. But I don't think it matters as in performance the Koko always uses a clever substitution of the word.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb voices!, March 17, 2000

By 

Susan E. Wood "Susan" (Rochester, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gilbert & Sullivan: The Mikado (Audio CD)

I'm with "Bunthorne" on this one. As we all know, "Hey Diddle Diddle would rank as an idyll if he pronounced it chaste" (and if you don't get the reference, you need to bone up on your G&S, so definitely buy this album, and maybe some others!). As a general rule, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are performed by good comic actors with decent, but not top-notch, singing voices, and women's arias in particular are strangled by what the great Anna Russell described as the "piercing British soprano." So it's a real joy to hear Sullivan's lovely, infectious melodies sung by a cast of consistently excellent singers with operatic as well as operetta experience. Felicity Palmer was a special treat as Katisha; it's easy to forget that although the role was supposed to be comic, it was also written for a fine mezzo, and Sullivan graced her with a couple of beautiful arias. I didn't notice the poor diction that one reviewer complained about, but perhaps that's because I know the lyrics already. Fortunately, a full libretto is enclosed, which makes it easy for the novice to follow along.