A couple of points for this humourless era. The ‘Japs’ of THE MIKADO were intended to be played by white men being yellow. It is, for goodness’ sake, an opéra-bouffe. A burlesque. And the woman who unilaterally cancelled the Michigan show was censured and the show rescheduled for the following season.I hope she’s gone away and married Kim whatsit the wedding queen.

The libretto for LAND DES LÄCHELNS is perfectly straightforward and professional. If it has a message, it is ‘east is east and west is west’. Of lovers who are torn apart by failing to shuck off the differing traditions of their countries. A perfectly fine (and much used) theme in drama for centuries.

But it is fashionable in certain circles to apply 21st century -isms to work from another era. It will give a generation of striving undergraduates the stuff of theses and doctorates just as other fashions have done ..

Bah! Bunkum! Poppycock!I’m off to listen once more to ROSE OF STAMBOUL and PIRATES OF PENZANCE. Oh no! I can’t. That’s offensive to Major Generals with 15 daughters, the House of Lords, the Police Force .. and of course the role of Mabel was created by a Jewess so MUST not be played by anyone not of the persuasion …

Why am I wasting my breath?

All is well in light hearted Act 1, as the dignified Chinese Prince Sou-Chong, envoy to the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Court, meets and falls in love with the young and beautiful Countess Lisa, although Daddy and her would-be boyfriend, Count Gustl, aren’t quite fully convinced. At the conclusion of the act, Sou-Chong is called back to China to become the new head of state, and at the last minute Lisa convinces herself to go with him. It is only when they reach Peking that events turn darker. Countess Lisa is met coldly by the Chinese court. Sou-Chong’s uncle, the head of family, tells the prince he must take four Chinese wives, and it is against Chinese law to marry a white woman (at least the English subtitles put it that way). Lisa must be kept as a concubine if the prince desires to keep her. Sou-Chong says, I am the new ruler, I will change the law, but of course he doesn’t, he obeys his uncle. He also explains to Lisa that in China women have no rights, they are the property of their master. The gentle approach for our boy Sou. Perhaps these onerous customs all existed at one time, but even in those days I doubt if such treatment of a noblewoman who’s put her trust in you would be considered princely behavior anywhere. It is certainly unacceptable to us today. If the original librettist, Victor Leon, was attempting to portray a clash of cultures he certainly succeeded. Poor Lisa finds herself virtually in the same situation as Konstance in Die Entfuhrung and Rossini’s Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, a western woman to be kept as a slave to love, not of her own volition. Countess Lisa says, ‘Help! I want out! How can I love a man that treats me like this?’ Fortuitously, Count Gustl has been appointed Chinese Ambassador with Daddy’s help, and aids Lisa’s escape. Although still in love with his countess, Sou-Chong lets her go, singing something about the inscrutable Chinese smiling when their hearts are broken. Audiences today would probably think it only serves the clueless bonehead right.

It seems to me there is more of a problem here than just Chinese or Austrian stereotypes. The oafish and male dominant treatment of women and the lack of any support for a supposed beloved one by a so-called prince are main themes and not very pretty ones from our librettist Leon. This is not just a bit of Austrian puffery tied to some lovely show music, and Land des Lacelns deserves to be called out for its unsavory and probably racist storyline.

Bill White