Opera Scotland

Mikado 1914D'Oyly Carte Opera Company

Read more about the opera Mikado

Outbreak of War - 7 August 1914

This Scottish tour began with a week in Edinburgh from 3 August, followed by two weeks in Glasgow from 10 August.  A week in Aberdeen followed, starting  24 August.  The Dundee week commencing Monday 31 August was the final leg.  As usual the main D'Oyly Carte touring company had visited the four Scottish cities with commercially successful results.  With war breaking out during the course of the tour, it would be expected that audiences were in need of cheering up.

The Mikado was the only piece to receive two performances in this single week-long visit.

Further Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen dates to be confirmed.

 

A Dundee Review

Dundee Advertiser: Wednesday, 2 September 1914     

Her Majesty's Theatre - The Mikado

'The Mikado is the great popular favourite among Gilbert-Sullivan operas.  Possessing neither the charming lightness of The Gondoliers nor the daintiness of Patience, which will be played to night, it has an inexhaustible fund of humour and not a few of those gems of lyrics which raise every Savoy opera to the heights.   The Mikado belongs to the period in which Gilbert's genius reached its fullest development, having been produced on the 14th of March 1885.   Yesterday evening a very full house gave a most enthusiastic reception to a performance even more tuneful than that of Monday.   The orchestra was better and the chorus singing was a feature which calls for special mention.   Nor must it be taken as ungallant to the ladies if we mark out for just a little preferment the singing of the male voices.   Nothing finer could possibly be desired.

'Among the players - the story is too well known to demand a summary - it would be invidious to draw distinction.   Every one worked with a will, and every one was suited to the allotted part.   Mr Leicester Tunks made a suitably sardonic Mikado.   The relish with which he anticipated the gentle “lingerrring” execution in boiling oil was hugely appreciated, and the song about the punishment fitting the crime was very popular.   Nanki-Poo, his son, disguised as a second trombone, was acted with spirit by Mr James Hay, whose singing of “A Wandering Minstrel” was deservedly encored, while his enunciation was excellently clear.   The Lord High Executioner, the man who never killed a bluebottle, was, of course, played by Mr Lytton.   And what more need be said?   The story of his rise to glory, the tale of his little list, and the other tale, the tale of the bird, were all as welcome as of yore.   Then Mr Billington, whose titles and offices are like the stars of the heavens, for they may not be numbered, you are a “tremendous swell” in all of your capacities, and we gladly pay you the “deference due to thee.”  Mr Hobbs as Pish-Tush was admirably suited to his part, and Mr Drawater was equally happy a Go-To.

'The three sisters - Miss Clara Dow, Miss Beatrice Boarer, and Miss Gwen Hawthorn - were specially happy in their parts.   Their singing of “Three little maids” was rapturously received.   Miss Dow again carried off the honours of the evening with her exquisite rendering of “The sun whose rays,” a perfect song most perfectly interpreted.   Miss Louie René was very effective as Katisha, the lady with the left elbow and the right heel.

'The whole performance left nothing to be desired and the splendid welcome which The Mikado got yesterday evening is eloquent testimony,  if such were needed, that the ardent desire of every theatre-goer is that the shadow of Pooh-Bah may never grow less!'

 

The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's Scottish Tour - 1914

The operas performed were:  Patience;  Iolanthe;  Princess Ida;  The Mikado;  The Yeomen of the Guard;  The Gondoliers.

The repertoire for the week was:

Dundee, w/c 31 August:   Mon 31 The Gondoliers;  Tue 1 Sep The Mikado;  Wed 2 Patience,  Thu 3 Princess Ida;  Fri 4 The Yeomen of the Guard;  Sat 5 mat Iolanthe;   Sat 6 eve The Mikado.

The cast is as reviewed in the Dundee Advertiser.

Additional dates for Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen to be confirmed.