The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-08-23

Here are the opinions of the two crit
les generally recognized as being first
and foremost on the New York dramat-
ic press. Ii we had not happened to
receive both at the same timewe should
doubtless have been content to wait I'M
til Careless. Spencer and White worked
The Mikado into shape before forming
a judgment upon 1t; but curiosity to
know with which of the two opinions
our own was going to coincide impelled
US the other night to attend a rehearsal
of a number of the principals and to
Darlington played, and Spencer,
Pyper, White. and one or two others
sang. Fifteen minutes later, and we
had formed our opinion-that in Salt
Lake at least, the Mirror man would be
held to be all wrong, and the Times man
more than all right.
The Mikado is very reminiscent of
Gilbert and Sullivan, there's no denying
that; but this to our fancy, is very far
from being an objection. That it is re-
hash, is certainly a mistake. There is,
as the Mirror says, bar or bar and a
half which opens the Mikado, identical
with part of Pinafore; any one who is
acquainted with vocal music has but to
hum to himself the intervals, "sol la do
do do-do do do" and he has the sisters
and the cousins .and the aunts patter,
and that of the gentlemen of Japan as
well but this is trifle, and we do not
believe the resemblance extends beyond
1t. A tenor solo, duet for tenor and
soprano, solo for Ko Ko (Spencer) and
another for Pooh-bah (White) are the
strong beauties of the Mikado and there
are few things in Sullivan's other works
which will surpass them; the chorus,
and particularly the male chorus have
some excellent work, and there is a
final trio on the order OF Kate Castle
tons bashful business which ought to
be extremely catchy.
The charge that the ibretto is a re-
hash is still more unfounded. Gilbert
was thought, in the Princess Ida, to have
written himself out, but the Mikado
shows that he has yet wealth of fun
and originality to draw upon. The story
of the Mikado, as the Times says, is
almost good enough for a farce by
itself. and this much could not
surely be said Of the story of
Pinafore. Patience. or the Pirates.
The following extracts from the libretto
will furnish an idea of how cleverly Gill
DerCS WOrk mas D6eu UOIle.
Ko Ko. the Lord High Executioner.
is felon who has been pardoned from
the county jail; his first solo is as fol-
lows:
As some day it migh. happen that victim
must be found,
l we got little list, We got little list
OF society offenders who might well be
underground,
And who never would be missed, who never
would be missed;
There's the presidential nuisances who write
for autographs,
And people VINO have fabby hands and irri-
tatlDg laughs.
All children who are up in dates and floor
you with 'em fat,
All persons who in shaking, shake hands
with yeu like that,
And all third persons who on spelling tete-
d-teteS insist,
They'd none OF them be missed, they'd none
of hem be missed.
After. two other verses OF a similar
nature. he says to the assembled mobiles
Ko. Gentlemen-I'm much touched
by this reception. 1 can only trust that
nv strict attention to duty shall insure
continuance of those favors, which ii
will ever be my duty to deserve. Gentle
men expect my three beautiful wards,
VIM .Yum. Peep-Bo, and Pitti-Sing, in
few minutes. If you will kindly re
ce1ye them with a show OF AFFECT defer
ence. 4 shall feel obliged to you; know
how painful it must be to noblemen OF
vonr rank to have to humiliate your.
selves before a person OF my antecedentsi
hut discipline must be observed.