HOW DARE THEY!!!!
Look at all that western clothing!
They should all be in Kimonos and Yukatas and Geta Sandals!
Posted on 05/22/2016 9:47:10 AM PDT by artichokegrower
In mid-February, word spread through the San Francisco theater community that a local group specializing in Gilbert and Sullivan productions was planning to stage the pair’s best known work, “The Mikado.” As recently as four years ago, this might not have been news at all. But this year, the community braced itself.
The piece, more than a century old and set in the fictionalized Japanese town of Titipu, is a favorite among Gilbert and Sullivan fans. Many consider it their masterpiece. Lately, however, “The Mikado” has been getting a second, more critical look, one that focuses on its inherent “orientalism” — or patronizing Western attitudes — and its long history of presenting white actors in “yellowface.” A recent production in Seattle was widely criticized, and another in New York City never made it to the stage.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
I see this kind of thing going on and my “little list” keeps getting longer and longer.
The sun, whose rays
Are all ablaze
With ever-living glory,
Does not deny
His majesty —
He scorns to tell a story!
He don’t exclaim,
“I blush for shame,
So kindly be indulgent.”
But, fierce and bold,
In fiery gold,
He glories all effulgent!
I mean to rule the earth,
As he the sky —
We really know our worth,
The sun and I!
I mean to rule the earth,
As he the sky —
We really know our worth,
The sun and I!
Observe his flame,
That placid dame,
The moon’s Celestial Highness;
There’s not a trace
Upon her face
Of diffidence or shyness:
She borrows light
That, through the night,
Mankind may all acclaim her!
And, truth to tell,
She lights up well,
So I, for one, don’t blame her!
Ah, pray make no mistake,
We are not shy;
We’re very wide awake,
The moon and I!
Ah, pray make no mistake,
We are not shy;
We’re very wide awake,
The moon and I!
But of course.
Political correctness trumps every other consideration nowadays.
The way things are going, every TV show, every movie, every play, made more than about 10 or 15 years ago, will have to be censored or banned, because everything would be deemed offensive to some politically correct grievance group.
I dispute that. "Pinafore" and "Pirates of Penzance" are certainly as well known as the Mikado.
But wait: there's Moor...
I spent my teen years in Japan, have been back numerous times, studied tea ceremony for 30 years, and yes, Mikado is about as ignorant of Japanese culture as something can be. But you don't watch it because of its Japanese culture, you watch it because the music is enjoyable, and it is a unique example of what the West's first thoughts were about Japan after the latter was opened up to the West in the mid-1800s.
I'm sick to death of PC Stalinists telling me what we are supposed to enjoy and what we are supposed to be offended by. I will say to them when they say to us: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T LOOK.
Maybe we should put Asians into Romeo and Juliet. Oh, wait. That leaves out the transgenders. How bout we make it “Romeo or Juliet, I Can’t Decide”?
“studied tea ceremony for 30 years”
A PhD in astrophysics might take 7-ish. Care to explain?
Maybe we should burn the Mikado script. Maybe we should burn all books deemed inappropriate. Wait has this been tried before?
Yep, we gotta redo Romeo and Juliet.
Imagine the different permutations you could do.
You could do it with male homosexuals, female homosexuals, bisexuals of either sex, causing some love triangles, or with one or both being transgendered. And then incorporate all of these different gender identities into the storyline somehow.
Yep, old Bill Shakespeare was “hetero normative” and “binary” in his thinking, when he wrote Romeo and Juliet.
Probably shouldn’t ask you about “Porgy and Bess”.
The Mikado - The List (Eric Idle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-_m6EZ1SUk
Not surprising. It is San Francisco. I saw it a few years ago at the Savoy Theater in London (where it originally premiered) and it was fine. The ‘list’ is always updated for topical humor. I was lucky, as a youth, I lived around the corner from the Light Opera of Manhattan. When the D’oyly Carte broke up, that’s where the greatest 20th century interpreter of G&S, John Reed, went.
San Francisco has NO sense of humor.
Any traditional Japanese art form is a lifetime endeavor; it would be the same as with the martial arts. No one ever stops studying and practicing, from the earliest novice to the hereditary headmaster.
HOW DARE THEY!!!!
Look at all that western clothing!
They should all be in Kimonos and Yukatas and Geta Sandals!
What a fabulous production of The Mikado YOU could direct!
[ And while they are at it get rid of that gosh darn Shakespeare. Always making fun of Danish folks. ]
Stop “English Cultural Appropriation”!!!
/sarc
As a full-blooded Caucasian who therefore supposedly has no say in the subject...
I think Porgy and Bess is probably more true to the presentation of blacks than even the earlier Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha, in spite of the fact that the former was written by Brooklyn Jew and the latter by a black Texan. But both operas are worth experiencing, Porgy because of its basis in blues/jazz, and Treemonisha because of its basis in ragtime, both uniquely black American musical genres.
The Mikado, as one observes in many other G and S works, pokes fun more at Victorian era issues than it does with the oriental “paper screen” veneer applique of Japanese life depicted in this work. The songs “I’ve got a little list” and “The object all sublime” are very sharp satires of various aspects of British life and culture. To take the “orientalism” out of the Mikado is a fatal mistake....the joke was not on the Japanese, the joke was on the British and if “one has eyes to see”...much of western culture!
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