Click the clef to hear the Overture to The Mikado by William Schwenck GILBERT and Arthur Seymour SULLIVAN. It was orchestrated by Sullivan's assistant Hamilton Clarke using selections from the composer's own music; the final page of the manuscript bears the note: "Overture designed & scored within 30 hours. H.C." The first production opened at Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre, just off The Strand in London's West End, on Saturday, 14th March 1885 and ran for 672 performances - a record in those days.

Hi - I'm Larry, I'm nearly 54 years old and I live on the northern fringe of London, U.K. I do a lot of things, but one of my spare-time hobby sidelines is a spot of amateur music publishing with the aid of my faithful PC and Coda Music's Finale® program. I call my edition "TLM Music Publications".

Some ten years ago or thereabouts I was involved with a small amateur dramatic/operatic society and somebody had the idea of doing The Mikado. Yours truly was delegated the task of getting hold of the music but, try as I would, I could not find anyone willing to sell me the sheet music. Finally, in desperation, I started trying the various music libraries, only to find that even the Central Music Library in Victoria, City of Westminster, had only one score (and no band parts) of The Mikado, and that was a facsimile reproduction of the autograph score.

I approached this with considerable trepidation, because unfortunately not all composers were Mozarts (his handwriting was as clear as a printed score). Ludwig Beethoven's manuscripts, for example, look like the meanderings of a spider that has just fallen into a bottle of ink! So I was pleasantly surprised to find that Sullivan's score is beautifully written in a distinct and clearly legible hand, even if he does make considerable use of the many shorthand devices and abbreviations which Gustav Holst (who apparently suffered from a debilitating nervous condition in his right arm) is reputed to have described as "the joys of life".

So, armed with a borrowed copy of the autograph full score, I sat down at the computer and set to work. My aim was not that of the academic editor wishing to produce a scholarly, critical edition purporting to represent "what Sullivan intended" or "how the show was performed a century ago" - all I wanted to do was to create for the practical musician a full score and a set of band parts that were reasonably consistent with currently available vocal scores and which I could make available FOR SALE, thus breaking the monopoly for too long enjoyed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and others who, for too long, have kept the music of this delightful show out of the public domain by refusing to publish it. And, moreover, because I was working directly from Sullivan's original manuscipt (or at least a photographic reproduction of it!), I could claim that my edition was a true and accurate representation of what the composer actually wrote.

Well, the task of preparing the full score is now finally completed and the band parts will follow, other commitments permitting. I did not do this for financial gain: it was a true labour of love. I want "The Mikado" to be available to anyone that wants to perform it, so I'm giving the score away absolutely free! There are 4 introductory pages & 243 pages of music, including the dialogue, and you can download the entire opera just by clicking the link below. The file is just a shade under 10.0Mb.

Alternatively, for the convenience of those with slower dial-up modems, I have divided the score into six sections of 40 pages each (okay, there are 43 pages in the last section):

You will need the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view and print these files. To get the latest version, click the button below:
 

Your comments on these score pages would be most appreciated and any constructive criticisms will be considered. In particular, please please PLEASE PLEASE do notify any typos you may come across, no matter how insignificant - a corrected version will be posted as quickly as possible. Click here to contact me.

Last updated: Thursday, 12th May, 2005