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The Mikado Trivia

The Mikado Trivia Quizzes

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Yum-Yum is wooed by Nanki-Poo (a wandering minstrel who turns out to be the Mikado's missing son) and Ko-Ko (Lord High Executioner of the Japanese town of Titipu). "The Mikado" was the longest-running of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas, and remains popular in amateur productions.
3 The Mikado quizzes and 35 The Mikado trivia questions.
1.
  "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
W.S. Gilbert wrote some inventive rhyming lyrics for "The Mikado". Let's see how you would have completed some of his lines.
Average, 10 Qns, askpau, Sep 10 08
Average
askpau
1101 plays
2.
  Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
This should be a fairly easy quiz on Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular operetta.
Average, 15 Qns, bleedingwhiterose, Nov 24 13
Average
bleedingwhiterose
1189 plays
3.
  "Mikado" in Translation    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You'll need to get out your Titipu-English / English-Titipu Dictionary to figure out just what is going on in Gilbert and Sullivan's famous light opera "The Mikado".
Tough, 10 Qns, sidnobls, Jul 20 11
Tough
sidnobls
312 plays
trivia question Quick Question
What doesn't John Wellington Wells do, according to his patter song? ["The Sorcerer"]

From Quiz "G&S Characters"




Related Topics
  Gilbert and Sullivan [Humanities] (15 quizzes)


The Mikado Trivia Questions
1. The Mikado was the Emperor of Japan. Just what does "Mikado" mean anyway?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: the gate

In Japan, it is an important tradition never to address members of nobility with their given names. Titles then are used as appropriate salutations. "Mikado" was a reference to the great gate at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

2. In what year was "The Mikado" first performed?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: 1885

It was first perfomed in 1885 at The Savoy theatre in London; the story behind its creation has recently been told in the film "Topsy Turvy."

3. "The Mikado" takes place in Titipu, Japan. What is Titipu most noted for in modern day Japan?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: a limestone quarry

Titipu is the Anglicization of "Chichibu", a locale in the Saitama region of Japan noted mainly for limestone and concrete production. The town was put on the world map in 1884 by a popular revolution that was ruthlessly quelled by Imperial forces. This, no doubt, provided the backdrop for W.S. Gilbert's tale of Love conquering Absolutism.

4. Nanki-Poo enters, carrying a "native guitar" on his back and a bundle of ballads in his hand. "A wandering minstrel I - A thing of shreds and patches, Of ballads, songs and _____, And dreamy lullaby!"

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: snatches

Nanki-Poo is the Romantic lead.

5. What is "The Mikado's" alternative title?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: The Town of Titipu

So named after the operetta's setting. "A More Humane Mikado" is one of the song titles, and The Lord High Executioner and Lord High Everything Else are other characters.

6. Nanki-poo describes his father, the Mikado, as "the Lucius Junius Brutus of his race". Why did his father deserve such a comparison?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: He threatened his son with execution.

Nanki-poo explains: "Some years ago I had the misfortune to captivate Katisha, an elderly lady of my father's Court. She misconstrued my customary affability into expressions of affection, and claimed me in marriage, under my father's law. My father, the Lucius Junius Brutus of his race, ordered me to marry her within a week, or perish ignominiously on the scaffold. That night I fled his Court, and, assuming the disguise of a Second Trombone..." Lucius Junius Brutus was First Consul of Rome. He condemned his own sons to death for their part in a treasonous conspiracy. Thanks to player by MrKnowsItAll, who pointed out the following additional information: More importantly, Lucius Junius Brutus disarmed his foes, and ascended to the throne by playing the fool. (L. Brutus - Fool) If the Mikado is read, keeping this in mind (i.e. that the Mikado pretends to be a fool) many of his lines and actions make more sense.

7. Most people know this little ditty: "Three little maids from school are we, Pert as a schoolgirl well can be, Filled to the brim with girlish ____, Three little maids from school!"

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: glee

The singers are Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing. The names are politically incorrect, but I suppose they are amusing for precisely that reason.

8. Which character sings "A Wandering Minstrel I"?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: Nanki Poo

Nanki Poo is the son of The Mikado, at this point disguised as a wandering minstrel "A thing of shreds and patches" searching for Yum Yum, the girl with whom he is in love.

9. Yum Yum protests to Nanki-poo: "But as I'm engaged to Ko-Ko, To embrace you thus, con fuoco, Would distinctly be no giuoco, And for yam I should get toko..." What sentence would best describe her plight?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: No joke! Our fiery embrace will get me in trouble, as I'm engaged to Ko-Ko!

Yum-Yum combines two Italian phrases - "con fuoco" (with fire) and "no giuoco" (no joke) with a Hindi word "toco", which was slang at the time denoting "trouble". Lyricist W.S. Gilbert was always inserting foreign words and phrases in his libretti to achieve really clever rhymes.

10. For what crime has Ko-Ko been condemned to death?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: Flirting

Alarmed at the lack of executions taking place in Titipu, The Mikado has made flirting punishable by death.

11. Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum sing loudly in Japanese "O ni! bikkuri shakkuri to!" What are they saying to Katisha?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: Demon, you surprise and shock us!

The long jilted Katisha, ever one to ruin the party, sings: "The hour of gladness is dead and gone;/in silent sadness I live alone!/ The hope I cherished, all lifeless lies,/ save love, which never dies!/ Oh, faithless one, this insult you shall rue!/ In vain for mercy on your knees you'll sue./ I'll tear the mask from your disguising!/ Prepare yourselves for news surprising!/ No minstrel he, despite bravado!/ He is the son of your..." well... see the show if you really want to know the secret.

12. Katisha does not manage to complete this sentence, but what does she want to say about Nanki-Poo? "In vain you interrupt with this tornado! He is the only son of your _____!"

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: Mikado

No wand'ring minstrel he - Nanki-Poo is indeed the son of the Mikado (the Emperor). In performance, the word "tornado" is pronounced "tor-nah-do" ("potato/po-tah-to"), so as to create a rhyme with "bravado", "gambado" and, of course, "Mikado".

13. In the madrigal, Yum-Yum, Pitti-Sing, Nanki-Poo, and Pish-Tush all sing that the tocsin will soon sound. What noise will it make?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: ding dong

"Though the tocsin sound, ere long, Ding dong! Ding dong! Yet until the shadows fall over one and over all, sing a happy madrigal." A tocsin is a warning bell. The other sounds would suggest traditional Japanese instruments - a shamisen (stringed), a horagai (seashell horn) or a taiko (large ceremonial drum).

14. "A more humane Mikado never Did in Japan exist, To nobody second, I'm certainly reckoned, A true _______."

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: philanthropist

The Mikado goes on to say: "My object all sublime/I shall achieve the time/To let the punishment fit the crime."

15. Which character sings "For He's Going to Marry Yum-Yum"?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: Pitti- Sing

Yum-Yum's sister Pitti-Sing sings this very catchy song when Katisha attempts to stop Yum-Yum's marriage to Nanki-Poo. The operetta ends with her singing the very similar "For he's gone and married Yum- Yum." The third sister, Peep-Bo, really doesn't get much to sing at all!

16. "B should be happy! Oh, so happy! Laughing, ha ha! Chaffing, ha ha! _____ quaffing, ha ha ha!"

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: nectar

Quaff (to drink deeply) is such a wonderful sounding word, I think we should use it more often.

17. Complete the quote: "Oh pray make no mistake we are not shy/ we're really wide awake ... "

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: the moon and I

In this very beautiful song Yum Yum, sad on the day before her wedding after hearing that Nanki-Poo is to be executed and she is to be buried alive, thinks about how beautiful she is and her connection to nature.

18. The Mikado claims to sentence certain criminals to "ride on a buffer in Parliamentary trains". What "heinous" crime deserves this punishment?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: scribbling on window panes

"The idiot who, in railway carriages,/ scribbles on window-panes,/ we only suffer to ride on a buffer/ in Parliamentary trains." To ride a buffer on a Parliamentary train is to ride, standing, in the noisy section between the carriages of a train. "Parliamentary trains" were trains mandated by legislation since 1844 to make a stop at least once a day at every single station or whistle-stop along a train line. The effect of the proscribed punishment, then, would be a very long and uncomfortable time of torment.

19. Ko-Ko says to Katisha: "Are you old enough to marry, do you think? Won't you wait till you are eighty in the shade? There's a fascination frantic In a ruin that's romantic Do you think you are sufficiently _____?"

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: decayed

Ko-Ko and Katisha, the two most unsympathetic characters, end up marrying each other.

20. With which song does Ko-Ko woo Katisha?

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: Tit Willow

In this very sweet song Ko-Ko describes a bird dying of love and says he will do the same if Katisha, having been rejected by Nanki-Po, will not marry him.

21. In describing a certain event to the Mikado, Ko-Ko claims that he used his "snickersee". What object did Ko-Ko find so useful?

From Quiz "Mikado" in Translation

Answer: a dagger

"Snickersee" is a Dutch long knife. Ko-Ko describes the action thus: "The criminal cried, as he dropped him down,/ In a state of wild alarm--/ With a frightful, frantic, fearful frown,/ I bared my big right arm./ I seized him by his little pig-tail,/ And on his knees fell he,/ As he squirmed and struggled,/ And gurgled and guggled,/ I drew my snickersnee!/ Oh, never shall I/ Forget the cry,/ Or the shriek that shrieked he,/ As I gnashed my teeth,/ When from its sheath/ I drew my snickersnee!" Scary stuff indeed, this crime and punishment!

22. Grand finale: "For he's gone and married Yum-Yum, Your anger pray bury, For all will be merry, I think you had better _____, And join our expressions of glee."

From Quiz "The Mikado" - Complete the Lyrics

Answer: succumb

Second verse, sung by Ko-Ko to Katisha: "On this subject I pray you be dumb, Your notions, though many, Are not worth a penny, The word for your guidance is "Mum" - You've a very good bargain in me." Thanks for playing!

23. Fill in the missing word: "So he decreed, in words succinct, That all who flirted, leered or _______"

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: winked

From "Our Great Mikado, virtuous man", this section sung by Pish-Tush.

24. Complete the quotation: "Three little maids who all unwary, come from a ladies' ..."

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: seminary

From probably the most famous song in "The Mikado"- "Three little maids from school". I noticed while humming this the other day that the tune to this part sounds a lot like the typical big top music. I'm not sure if this is coincidence or not but if anyone knows I'd like to know!

25. Complete the quote: "Sometimes I sit and wonder in my artless _________ way why it is that I am so much more attractive than anyone else in the whole world."

From Quiz Gilbert and Sullivan- The Mikado

Answer: Japanese

This is in Yum-Yum's speech before she sings "The Sun whose Rays". It is not she says "Vanity? No! Nature is lovely and rejoices in her loveliness!" Myself, I sit and wonder how it is that two men as opposed to women's liberation as Gilbert and Sullivan were could create such strong and endearing female characters.

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