Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Operatic updates are tricky things, and prone to fiasco. But Gilbert & Sullivan’s "The Mikado," seen Saturday night in its opening at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, updates hilariously to present-day Japan (and America), its satire now encompassing cell-phone users, presidential candidates (they’d none of them be missed), op-ed columnists and bloggers, among other well-chosen targets.

Stage director Ned Canty, with the aid of set designer Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams and costume designer Linda Cho, gives us the town of Titipu as a high-rise suburb of Tokyo, with a chorus of identically dressed businessmen and schoolgirls in sailor suits (all singing, all dancing), Nanki-Poo as a Elvis-esque punker, three Anime-inspired little maids, and Pish-Tush as a technogeek who glides around on shoes equipped with wheels in their heels.