The Mikado or the Town of Titipu

If you want to see a brilliant performance of Mikado, played to perfection with expert timing and panache, don't watch this version. If you want to see a hammy version with Eric Idle strutting around in 1930's english gentlemen's private club society, this is the one to watch. It's a lot of fun and a good intro to Gilbert and Sullivan, but after this, rush out and rent the Canadian Stratford version. You'll see the difference between good and great. Nobody does G&S better than Brian McDonald and the Stratford group.

This is the story of a faraway almost-forgotten land. No, not feudal Japan but Britain in1987 when a commercial television company was able to broadcast opera to peak-viewing audiences. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put a stop to all that and, in 1992, Thames received its own short, sharp shock when it lost its franchise.

When I was 12 years old I was a fairy in Iolanthe. Since then my interest in opera has tended towards the more serious end of the spectrum and I have never seen a Gilbert and Sullivan opera live. My knowledge of The Mikado is limited to the excellent, but truncated, 1939 Hollywood version and the execrable 1996 Australian version which is still, sadly, doing the rounds.

We have to be grateful for Sky Arts rediscovery of this English National Opera production, directed by Jonathan Miller, a recording that I did not even know existed. Miller updates the production to the 1920s and there is nothing at all Japanese about the sets or costumes. This may offend a few purists but I found it delightful. It stars Eric Idle as Ko-Ko, bringing his own Little List to the production. His comic timing is wonderful. I particularly enjoyed his licking the Mikado's boot and his exclamation when he has to read the Mikado's decree: "It's in Japanese!" His delivery of Gilbert's dialogue is strangely reminiscent of Monty Python.

Lesley Garrett is Yum-Yum, making clear her star quality at a very early stage in her career. There is a hilarious Pish-Tush from Mark Richardson with an outrageous Yorkshire accent and an even more outrageous orange toupee. Richard Van Allen is a droll Pooh-Bah. Bonaventura Bottone is slightly disappointing as a rather fruity Nanki-Poo. Richard Angas plays the Mikado as a jovial giant turtle in a huge fat suit with his scrawny neck sticking out of an outsize collar. His dancing is a delight, as is the Busby Berkeley style dancing of the ensemble of bellboys, schoolgirls with lacrosse sticks and maids with feather dusters. Finally, I must mention Felicity Palmer's delicious performance as the scheming Katisha, despite being much too attractive to be completely convincing in the role.

The sound quality is not brilliant. It sounds as though you are listening to a performance in your local scout hall. Visually the production is a bit fuzzy but probably state of the art for 1987 with on-stage hand-held cameras and some vignetting which other reviewers have found irritating. This is a triumph for Jonathan Miller but, if he was watching this broadcast last week, I'm sure he would have cringed at the sight of the Gentelemen from Japan making slitty-eyed gestures and karate-chop motions.

Yet another example of an English Opera production, recorded on an English stage and yet not being on sale in England, sorry, the UK. Anyway, if you are unfortunate enough to live in the UK and you try hard enough and you have a multi-region player then you can get a Region 1 DVD sent over from the USA. Not a great DVD, no subtitles for example. But better than nothing.

The performances are excellent as other reviewers have already said. The sound is too on-mike in places, which gives the game away a bit; my guess is that what we see and hear is a gluing together of material shot at one or more real live performances with a lot of extra material re-shot without an audience.

What makes this DVD poor is not what is happening on the stage but what is happening in the vision mixing department. Terrible camera directing; silly and contrived angles; poor transitions from closeups to wide shots; gimmicky and superfluous "multi-faceting lens" effects. If only it had been directed by a better director of televised operas (the excellent Brian Large springs to mind) then this would have been a wonderful record of a production that is still (2008) being staged in London. It is sad to think that when it eventually ceases to be performed the only video recording of it will be this visually flawed one.

This is a fine Mikado with modern attire instead of the Japanese.

Eric Idle hams it up and is rather good.

But, personally, I much prefer the 1982 version seen on television which has a stellar singing cast with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and the London Symphony Orchestra led by Alexander Faris. The costumes appear to be authentic and set the mood for this great satire.

You will enjoy the Eric Idle production very much.

I first saw this on Thames television and loved it. I subsequently saw a dreadful write-up by someone who certainly hadn't watched or listened to it. So, I bought a copy and then I bought another copy! The only sad thing is that it is not available on PAL VHS or Region 2 DVD. The Australian version is great, but this one is better! I might buy another.............