'Mikado' opens Lyric Opera's first season at new theater

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 12, 2005 12:30 PM PDT ∞

With its opening of "The Mikado" on Friday night, Lyric Opera San Diego completes a long-in-the-works transformation.

In the years since its founding in 1979, the company has changed leadership, changed repertoire, changed conductors, changed names and ---- most recently ---- changed locations from its longtime home at Balboa Park's aging Casa del Prado Theatre to its new permanent artistic home, the Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre.

J. Sherwood Montgomery and Leon Natker, who have run the company as artistic director and general director since the mid-1980s, have worked hard over the past 10 years to upgrade and reposition the company for the 21st century. Among the changes they made: broadening the musical repertoire from just Gilbert and Sullivan works to include a broad range of operetta, comic opera and Broadway musicals; hiring accomplished guest conductor Martin Wright; and changing the company's name from its former San Diego Comic Opera.

But the most important change was the company's relocation to the North Park Theatre, a long-shuttered 1928 movie theater on University Avenue that has undergone a multimillion-dollar transformation over the past five years. Lyric Opera will run the theater as its managing tenant and numerous other arts groups will share the 736-seat space.

Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" was chosen as the opening production of Lyric Opera's first season at the North Park Theatre because it was the very first show the company ever staged in San Diego 26 years ago. The company re-stages "Mikado" about every five years because it remains one of the most popular shows in the company's repertoire.

In the 1885 operetta, unmarried nobleman Ko-Ko has been condemned to death for excessive flirtation. Since Ko-Ko will no longer be able to marry his fiancee Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo (son of the Mikado, the ruler of Japan) vies for her hand (temporarily forgetting about his own prearranged engagement to Katisha). In the meantime, the Mikado has temporarily pardoned Ko-Ko and appointed him Lord High Executioner, a post that requires Ko-Ko to cut off lots of heads. But Ko-Ko can't bring himself to kill anyone and unless he does, the Mikado will destroy the village and everyone in it. The operetta is best known for the songs "A Wand'ring Minstrel I," "Three Little Maids from School" and "Willow, Tit-Willow."

The Lyric Opera production will star Lisa Archibeque as Yum-Yum, Joseph Grienenberger as Ko-Ko, Martha Jane Weaver as Katisha and Jonathan Michael Knapp as Nanki-Poo. Natker will conduct the production.