Three Little Maids From School Are We for Two Violins

from The Mikado, Act I, no. 7

In an 1885 interview, Gilbert stated that the short stature of the three female leads “suggested the advisability of grouping them as three Japanese school-girls” referred to in the opera as the “three little maids”. He also recounted that a young Japanese lady, a tea-server from the Japanese village, came to rehearsals to coach the three little maids in some native Japanese dances. One month before The Mikado opened, the local newspaper wrote about the opening of the Japanese village noting, among other things, that “the graceful, fantastic dancing featured… three little maids!”