Behind the Scenes

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Highlights Reel

Praise for The Montana Mikado

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“Such a fun re-interpretation of G&S! Relevant, engaging, approachable, and very fun for all ages. I heard belly laughs from teenagers and 80+ patrons alike!”

“It’s nice to see the brave approach of not just performing a stand alone work, but inventing something new. Bozeman’s first real opera!”

“There are no words to describe how amazing the ingenuity of the re-write and the singers were! This should have been required to watch by every resident!”

“Relevant, smart, funny lyrics, beautiful music & singing, and acting, dancing, staging…really the whole package! It was all masterfully presented!”

“It was sublime to be able to enjoy the music of The Mikado wholeheartedly because its outdated content had been scrapped and completely redone. I am in awe that IOB took this on and am grateful for how beautifully it was accomplished.”

“This is the best operetta experience I have ever had! It was witty and at times hilarious yet not so silly that it became uncomfortable. I can’t imagine how you will ever top this performance!”

About the Production

Soren Kisiel of Bozeman’s own Broad Comedy and Camp Equinox updates Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado to present-day Montana. This brand-new & revolutionaryadaptation combines Arthur Sullivan’s original 19th-Century music with Kisiel’s riotous satire of contemporary Bozeman culture. Learn more about the opera here.

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"What a thrill to be working with the Intermountain Opera on this project. The chance to adapt Gilbert and Sullivan's bouncing rhythms and lightning fast satirical wit will be a real pleasure and a challenge. And then to have that work performed by the amazing talent that the Intermountain Opera brings together—this will genuinely be a blast!"

-Soren Kisiel (June 28, 2021)

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“We want to eliminate every reference to Japan, change all the character and place names, and make fun of our region.” Sakir says. “Take out the Japanese lords and school girls and replace them with local Montanan hipsters, skiers, and ranchers. Adapting The Mikado in this way not only addresses the problems of the original work, but offers a unique opportunity to laugh with each other at a time when we desperately need that kind of levity.”

- Artistic Director Michael Sakir

Learn more about the problematic history of The Mikado

Special Events

• How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mikado?
  • A free, five-part webinar series hosted by Sarah Allen, PhD
  • January 10, 17, 24, 31, & February 1 @ 6:00 PM MST
  • FREE TO ATTEND
  • This webinar series is designed to increase your awareness of the biases, stereotypes, and discrimination Asian-Americans have historically experienced and continue to experience today. You will gain knowledge and skills to help you become a better ally and will leave with a deeper understanding of why Intermountain Opera Bozeman’s new adaptation of THE MIKADO is needed for social change.

Dis-Locating the Orient: The Mikado, Re-written for Contemporary Montana

• Peter Tillack, Associate Professor of Japan Studies, Chair of Asian Studies Program
• Thursday, January 27, 2022 @ 7:00 PM  |  Montana State University, Student Union Building, Ballroom A
• FREE TO ATTEND
• Written in 1885 as a satire on British politics yet staged in an exoticized Japan, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado has been a perennial favorite with Western audiences ever since. “Dis-Locating the Orient” explores the problematic side of this history—its aestheticized colonialist presumptions, its conflations of Japanese with other Asian cultures, its casual racism— to engage the questions, At a moment of fraught racial politics in the US, ought The Mikado to be staged? What might be the political implications for removing the Orient from the opera, and pivoting the focus of its satire to contemporary Montana?