NOTHING JAPANESE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20648, 26 December 1941, Page 4

NOTHING JAPANESE

STRONG SYDNEY FEELING THE MIKADO’ CANCELLED So strong is anti-Japanese feeling in Sydney that the firm of J. C. Williamson, Limited, has given way to public opinion and cancelled plans to include “The Mikado” in a Gilbert and Sullivan season. Mr. J. Farrell, Auckland manager for the firm, said that this was the first time there had been a protest in Australia or New Zealand against the production of “The Mikado,” which vied with “The Gondoliers” as Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular opera, but the Japanese themselves had vigorously opposed its original production.. “The Japanese objected strongly when ‘The Mikado’ first appeared, and even approached the British Government about it,” Mr. Farrell said. “D’Oyley Carte was very perturbed, but eventually the Japanese seemed to see the humorous side and gave way, so the producer carried on. “The company in Sydney had many telephone messages about the coming production recently,” he said. “Some sought its postponement and others asked for it to be produced, but evidently the consensus of opinion was that the Sydney people do not want anything Japanese at all. It is, of course, a satire on the Mikado’s Court.” Mr. Farrell said that instead of “The Mikado” the company would do “The Gondoliers.” No objection had been taken/to this, despite the opera’s Italian setting. Mr. Farrell recalled the banning of “The Mikado” in Plymouth, England, when a Japanese fleet was there in 1910, and said that in spite of this and the earlier incident the opera had been always an outstanding success.