The Japan of pure invention
Subtitle: Gilbert and Sullivan's the Mikado
By: Josephine Lee.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press; Univ Of Minnesota Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9780816665792; 9780816665808
Subjects: Sullivan, Arthur, -- 1842-1900; Japan in opera; Orientalism
Description: Long before Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation , long before Barthes explicated his empire of signs, even before Puccini's Madame Butterfly , Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado presented its own distinctive version of Japan. Set in a fictional town called Titipu and populated by characters named Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo, and Pooh-Bah, the opera has remained popular since its premiere in 1885. Tracing the history of The Mikado's performances from Victorian times to the present, Josephine Lee reveals the continuing viability of the play's surprisingly complex racial dynamics as they have been adapted.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I. 1885. My objects all sublime : racial performance and commodity culture ; "My artless Japanese way" : Japanese villages and absent coolies ; Magical objects and therapeutic yellowface; title: Part II. 1938-39. "And others of his race" : blackface and yellowface ; Titipu comes to America : hot and cool Mikados; title: Part III. Contemporary Mikados. "The threatened cloud": production and protest ; Asian American Mikados ; The Mikado in Japan.