| Three Little Maids from School Are We | |
|---|---|
| Opera trio by Gilbert and Sullivan | |
 Joanne Moore, Jennifer Toye and Peggy Ann Jones as the three little maids (1962) | |
| Year | 1885 |
"Three Little Maids from School Are We", sometimes listed as "Three Little Maids", is a song from Act I of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado .
In an 1885 interview with the New-York Daily Tribune , W. S. Gilbert said that the short stature of Leonora Braham, Jessie Bond and Sybil Grey "suggested the advisability of grouping them as three Japanese school-girls", the opera's "three little maids". He also recounted that a young Japanese lady, a tea server at the Japanese village, came to rehearsals to coach the three little maids in Japanese dance. [1] On 12 February 1885, one month before The Mikado opened, The Illustrated London News wrote about the opening of the Japanese village noting, among other things, that "the graceful, fantastic dancing featured ... three little maids!" [2]
The song is a trio for three female characters, the schoolgirls Yum-Yum, Peep Bo and Pitti-Sing. Near the beginning of the opera, Nanki-Poo, disguised as a poor minstrel, but secretly the son of the Mikado (the emperor of Japan), has returned to the Town of Titipu to inquire about his beloved, Yum-Yum, who is a ward of Ko-Ko, the town's Lord High Executioner. Pooh-Bah, a high officer of state, informs Nanki-Poo that Yum-Yum is scheduled to marry Ko-Ko on the very day that he has returned. Ko-Ko arrives, soon followed by Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo, Pitti-Sing and their schoolmates, and they introduced themselves with this song.
The characters sing that they are "filled to the brim with girlish glee", find "fun" in life and "come from a ladies' seminary". The three schoolgirls note, arithmetically, that the "total sum" of three little maids is reached by adding the bride, Yum-Yum, to the two others who are "in attendance" on her for her wedding, and that if the bride is subtracted from the three, the other two "remain". The lyrics' rhyme scheme is as follows: AAAB, CCCB, DDDB, EEEB, FFFB, with a choral reprise of DDDB. [3]
In 2016, the song was one of 246 featured in Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music . [4]
The song is featured in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire , where Harold Abrahams first sees his future wife dressed as one of the Three Little Maids. [5] Television programmes that have featured the song include the Cheers episode "Simon Says", [6] [ better source needed ] the Frasier episode "Leapin' Lizards", [7] [ better source needed ] the Angel episode "Hole in the World", [8] [ better source needed ] The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", [9] The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episode "Lost in Translation", [10] and The Animaniacs Vol. 1 episode "Hello Nice Warners". [11] the Dinah Shore Show , Shore sang the song with Joan Sutherland and Ella Fitzgerald in 1963. [12] [13] Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm frequenty uses an instrumental version of the song. [14]
The Capitol Steps performed a parody titled "Three Little Kurds from School Are We" [15] about conditions in Iraq and "Three little wives of Newt", a 2012 lampoon of candidate Newt Gingrich's marital issues. [16]
Double A-Side singles:
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End. Knightsbridge is also the name of the roadway which runs near the south side of Hyde Park from Hyde Park Corner.
Topsy-Turvy is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. The film focuses on the creative conflict between playwright and composer, and their decision to continue their partnership, which led to their creation of several more Savoy operas.
The Swing Mikado is a musical theatre adaptation, in two acts, of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera, The Mikado, with music arranged by Gentry Warden. It featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island. The show was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938. Later that year, it transferred to Broadway. Other changes from the original work included the re-scoring of five of the musical numbers in "swing" style, the insertion of popular dance sequences including The Truck and the Cakewalk, and the rewriting of some of the dialogue in an attempt at black dialect. Other than that, the original dialogue and score of 1885 were used.
The Hot Mikado was a musical theatre adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado with an African-American cast. It was first produced by Mike Todd on Broadway in 1939. It starred Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the title role, with musical arrangements by Charles L. Cooke and direction by Hassard Short.
Hot Mikado is a musical comedy, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado, adapted by David H. Bell and Rob Bowman. After researching the 1939 Broadway musical, The Hot Mikado, and being disappointed at the amount of surviving material that they could find, Bell and Bowman created a new adaptation, Hot Mikado. "Not much remains, however, of the 1939 show’s African-American emphasis, save the cool hipster style which even then was beginning to be eagerly pre-empted by Americans of every ethnicity."
Thomas Round was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in the leading tenor roles of the Savoy Operas and grand opera.
Philip White Potter was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the principal tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1961 to 1971. Potter recorded several of his roles with D'Oyly Carte, and his performance as Nanki-Poo is preserved in the company's 1966 film of The Mikado.
Geraldine Ulmar was an American singer and actress, best known for her performances in soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
George Tyrell Thorne was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, especially on tour and in the original New York City productions. He married D'Oyly Carte chorister Geraldine Thompson.
The Cool Mikado is a British musical film released in 1963, directed by Michael Winner, and produced by Harold Baim, with music arranged by Martin Slavin and John Barry. It starred Frankie Howerd as Ko-Ko, Lionel Blair and Stubby Kaye. The script was written by Michael Winner, from an adaptation by Maurice Browning.
For nearly 150 years, Gilbert and Sullivan have pervasively influenced popular culture in the English-speaking world. Lines and quotations from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas have become part of the English language, such as "short, sharp shock", "What never? Well, hardly ever!", "let the punishment fit the crime", and "A policeman's lot is not a happy one".
Charles Eric Goulding was a British operatic tenor and actor best known for his performances with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertory.
Pauline Wales was an English singer and actress best known for her performances in the mezzo-soprano roles of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
The Girl Said No is a 1937 American musical comedy film produced by Andrew L. Stone and Edward L. Alperson for Grand National Pictures and directed by Andrew L. Stone. The screenplay was written by Betty Laidlaw, Robert Lively and Andrew L. Stone. The film stars Robert Armstrong, Irene Hervey and Paula Stone. It uses musical numbers from Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and the story is about a shady bookie who is in love with a greedy dance hall girl and schemes to get her back after she rejects him. Along the way, he revives a failing Gilbert and Sullivan troupe.
Ellen Sophia Taylor, known professionally as Sybil Grey, was a British singer and actress during the Victorian era best known for creating a series of minor roles in productions by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, including roles in several of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan operas, from 1880 to 1888. Afterwards, she went on to a long West End theatre career, appearing in both musical theatre and plays.
The Black Mikado is a musical comedy, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, adapted by Janos Bajtala, George Larnyoh and Eddie Quansah from W. S. Gilbert's original 1885 libretto and Arthur Sullivan's score. The show premiered on 24 April 1975 at the Cambridge Theatre in London, where it ran for 472 performances before going on a national tour. A 1976 production was mounted in Soweto, South Africa, where it played at the Diepkloof Hall. After this, the musical was not revived.
Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done is a 1975 British animated musical comedy film directed by Bill Melendez and designed by Ronald Searle, based on the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.
The Mikado is a 1939 British musical comedy film based on Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera The Mikado. Shot in Technicolor, the film stars Martyn Green as Ko-Ko, Sydney Granville as Pooh-Bah, the American singer Kenny Baker as Nanki-Poo and Jean Colin as Yum-Yum. Many of the other leads and choristers were or had been members of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
The Mikado is a 1967 British musical film adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1885 comic opera of the same name. The film was directed by Stuart Burge and was a slightly edited adaptation of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's production of The Mikado and used all D'Oyly Carte singers.
