A more PC Mikado is no less funny

By Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 21 August 2016

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Reviewed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, San Francisco on 19 August 2016

Sullivan, The Mikado (Reimagined in Renaissance Italy)

Lamplighters Music Theater

Baker Peeples, Conductor

Ellen Brooks, Director

Miriam Lewis, Costume Designer

Samuel Rabinowitz, Ko-Ko, Lord High Executioner

Patricia Westley, Yum-Yum

Patrick Hagen, Nanki-Poo, son of Mikado

Anne Hubble, Katisha

Ben Brady, Mikado

Charles Martin, Pooh-Bah, Lord High Everything Else

Michael Orlinsky, Baritone

Michele Schroeder, Mezzo-soprano

Allison Spencer, Soprano

Lamplighters' Patience stills demands patience

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 4th February

The Lamplighters stage Gilbert and Sullivan's satirical operetta with their usual high production values and talented cast.

***11

Lamplighters glitter in Bernstein’s Candide

Jaime Robles, 31st January

The Bernstein operetta is a sassy summation of Voltaire’s classic in this alluring production by The Lamplighters.

****1

Glyndebourne’s first Tosca: vocally strong but imperfect

David Karlin, 21st May

Ted Huffman brings some interesting ideas to his first Glyndebourne production. Excellent singing is let down by indifferent physical acting.

***11

The Drover's Wife brings Aboriginal Dreaming to opera audiences

Jeremy Eccles, 16th May

Emerging from different incarnations of Leah Purcell’s play, George Palmer’s opera develops traditional Dreaming elements from Aboriginal mythology, premiering in Brisbane.

****1

Orlando revisited: Olga Neuwirth’s Woolf adaptation comes to Berlin

Elena Luporini, 16th May

The German premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando at the Komische Oper cements it as a postmodern grand opéra – for better or for worse.

***11

Anna Netrebko gatecrashes Riccardo Chailly’s La Scala farewell

Laura Servidei, 16th May

Riccardo Chailly’s final new production as artistic director is a celebration of Verdi and of a conductor whose relationship with the Milanese audience has clearly deepened over the years.

*****

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Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Ilana Walder-Biesanz is a product manager for Yahoo, a theatre and opera critic, and a classically trained mezzo-soprano. She explored theater and opera stagings as a Gates Scholar at Cambridge and as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. She currently writes for Bachtrack, San Francisco Classical Voice, and Stark Insider. Twitter: @ilana_wb.

Lamplighters' more PC Mikado is no less funny