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.

• Introduction

• Plot Summaries
  • Summary with links to the songs.
  • Summary for use in performing group programmes.
  • Long summary from the Victor Book of the Opera (1936 edition). Also available as a WordPerfect file.

• Libretto
  • WordPerfect (42K zipped file)
  • ASCII (94K)
  • A version of the libretto formatted for use with palmtop computers is available from the Palm Pirates web site.
  • Early D'Oyly Carte prompt book [PDF File, 8.85MB]
  • Another Early D'Oyly Carte prompt book [PDF File, 7.46MB]
  • Libretto published by Oliver Ditson, (n.d.) [from the Internet Archive]
  • Libretto with illustrations by Russell Flint, (1911) [from the Internet Archive]

• The Story of the Mikado by W. S. Gilbert (1921) [from the Internet Archive]

• Glossaries
  • The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive Glossary.
  • from the book Titwillow by Guy and Claude Walmisley.

• The Music
  • MIDI Files: listen to the music.
  • Audio Sample Files: Mikado Audio Samples Home Page
  • 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.
  • Scores: Sources of Vocal Scores, Reduced Orchestrations, etc.
  • Vocal Score Errata
  • Musical Solutions — G&S MIDI Rehearsal Files — David Cookson's site includes MIDI rehearsal files for all the G&S Operas, plus Cox and Box and Haddon Hall.
  • The Mikado Lancers arranged for piano duet by P. Bucalossi. This score is available to download as a PDF file [5.89MB] courtesy of David Stone.

• First Night Cast.

• Discography: Marc Shepherd's Mikado Discography

• Recordings:
  • Favourite Airs from The Mikado performed by the Edison Light Opera Company. Edison Blue Amberol 2179. Restored by Adam Cuerden. [MP3 file, 3.9MB]
  • Complete 1907/8 Odeon recording with Walter Passmore as Ko-Ko. [From the Internet Archive.]
  • 1926 HMV recording. [From the Internet Archive.]

Buy a recording: D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Godfrey (1951) You can order the CD or download in MP3 format.

• Artwork
  • Mikado Picture Gallery — beautiful watercolours by W. Russell Flint of scenes from the opera.
  • Ricketts' 1926 costume designs for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
  • D'Oyly Carte Picture Gallery — Pictures of D'Oyly Carte Productions, 1885-1982
  • Jigsaw Puzzles — solve these jigsaw puzzles on your screen. The "harder version" of each puzzle includes rotating and mirroring pieces.
  • American Mikado Poster Collection — A collection of high resolution scans of American Mikado posters from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • Mikado Trade Cards
  • Clip Art
    • Clip art Index, page 1
    • Clip art Index, page 2
    • Clip art Index, page 3

• Reviews
  • Submitted to the Archive by Louis Silverstein.
    • Review from The Monthly Musical Record, 1 May 1885 (original production review)
    • Review from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, February 1886.
    • Review from Staffordshire Sentinel, November 1895.
    • Review from Staffordshire Sentinel, March 1902.
    • Preview from Staffordshire Sentinel, February 1927.
  • Early reviews of The Mikado on the Savoy Opera Reviews website.

• 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.
  • Web Pages
  • Microsoft Word File (254K)
  • Self-extracting Zipped Microsoft Word File (139K)
  • Text (ASCII) File (239K)

• 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.

• A chapter on The Mikado from the book Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, A History and a Comment, by H. M. Walbrook, published in London in 1922.

• 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 Mikado in German. They produced a CD set which features them singing The Mikado in both English and German.

• Newspaper Article by H. L. Mencken.

• The Gilbert and Sullivan Parody Archive. Contains a full-length parody on the opera, and several parodies on "I've Got a Little List."

• To Opera Index
• To Gilbert and Sullivan Archive Home Page