The most popular Gilbert and Sullivan opera, and arguably the most popular opera ever written. This opera has delighted audiences for more than a century, and spawned a number of imitations. But none were nearly as good as the original, which represented both Gilbert and Sullivan at the height of their creative geniuses.
An Illustrated History of the Partnership of W. S. Gilbert and
Sir Arthur Sullivan as seen through their Masterwork Comic Opera
by Wyn Craig Wade
The Music
IMSLP has various editions of the vocal score, band parts, and full score, available for download as PDF files.
Vocal
Score: A nineteenth century American edition of the Vocal Score
published by Pond can be downloaded from the Internet Archive in a variety
of formats.
Autograph
Score: The Internet Archive also provides a digitized, browsable
of Sir Arthur Sullivan's original manuscript.
Includes MIDI files for all of the music from the opera — nearly 1 hour and 20 minutes of music — accompanied by an illustrated libretto so that you can sing-along with the music. A really great way to enjoy this most popular of all light operas.
Opera of the Week Discussion — Transcript of a discussion of The Mikado by members of the SavoyNet distribution list, Compiled by Bill McCann. This extensive discussion provides substantial background information on this opera, and is a must for anyone wanting to understand it better, produce it, or perform in it.
The story of The Making of The Mikado from the book "Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas" by François Cellier & Cunningham Bridgeman, published by Little, Brown and Company in 1914.
The Mikado in Japan by Joseph Raben. A first hand account of a public performance of The Mikado in Japan by GI's in 1946.
The Mikado in France — an article about a January 1966 BBC radio broadcast of Le Mikado, a French translation of The Mikado. It was translated by Tony Mayer for an RTF broadcast in France in 1965.
The Mikado in Germany — web site developed by the pupils of the gymnasium in the town Parsberg in Bavaria about their production of The Mikado in German. They produced a CD set which features them singing The Mikado in both English and German.
Newspaper Article from the Baltimore Evening Sun, November 29, 1910 by H. L. Mencken.