Word: titipu
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...always the same visit, as full of tradition and ritual as though the visiting players were visiting royalty. It even seems to fetch the same audiences of devotees. The extravaganzas that once turned Victorian sanity upside down today seem one of the few things still on their feet. Titipu still flourishes, Barataria still stands...
...Mikado," which was first produced in 1885, supposedly is set in Japan, but there can be no doubt that the town of titipu is located somewhere in England. Gilbert and Sullivan owned much of their popularity to their ability to give their audiences friendly but accurate digs in the ribs, and "The Mikado" is the most popular because the satire applies to more people than in the other operas. Other G & S works have more credible plots and more consistently good lyries, but "The Mikado," with no conspicuous weaknesses, is primarily a good show. The acting, the sets...
...Negro show like its Federal Theatre rival, The Hot Mikado kisses the Old Boys good-by at about the eighth bar of the first song, turns Titipu into a dance hall before latecomers are in their seats, makes Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo carry on like three little maids from reform school, and finishes Act I in an uproar when Katisha busts in, no hatchet-faced termagant, but an eye-rolling, hip-shaking, torch-singing Red Hot Mama...
Once more the Nipponese come trooping out of Titipu; the Land of the Rising Sun goes Topsy-Turvy, and Victorian England "trips in Liberty silks." It is a show done to the Mikado's taste, with all the pace and spirit that one could wish...
...novelty is supplied by Hizi Koyke, a Japanese, as the opera's Yum-Yum. She is charming, has a good voice, but strangely enough the fact that she is really Japanese adds little to the show, detracts from the pleasant unreality of the doings in the town of Titipu. Librettist Gilbert knew nothing and cared less about things Japanese. The opera suggested itself to him as he gazed at a curved sword on his English study wall...