Our 2011 production: Iolanthe, or The Peer and The Peri
Iolanthe, one of the best known and best loved of the Savoy operas—it is a particular favorite of children—was the seventh of the fourteen works written jointly by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert and Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan and was first performed by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre in London on 25 November 1882. The Savoy Company first performed the opera in 1904, with additional productions in 1912, 1922, 1927, 1937, 1947, 1958, 1968, 1978, 1989, and 2001.
Argument
Twenty-five years ago, Iolanthe, a fairy, committed the capital offense of marrying a mortal. The Fairy Queen reduced her sentence to exile, on condition that she leave her husband and never see him again. Iolanthe's son, Strephon, has grown up half fairy, half mortal. He loves Phyllis, a ward of the Court of Chancery, but must compete for her favors with the members of the House of Lords, who have also fallen in love with her.
As the curtain rises, the Fairy Queen pardons Iolanthe. Strephon announces his desire to marry Phyllis. Meanwhile, the peers appeal to the Lord Chancellor to give Phyllis to one of them. Phyllis demurs, announcing her desire to marry Strephon, but the Lord Chancellor, whose ward Phyllis is, refuses permission. Strephon is crushed and Iolanthe tries to comfort her son, but this tender moment is misconstrued by Phyllis who in anger decides to marry one of the peers.
The fairies take Strephon's side, punishing the peers by sending Strephon into parliament and casting a spell to make it pass any bill he wishes. Meanwhile, the Lord Chancellor decides he wants to marry Phyllis. To prevent the Lord Chancellor from marrying Phyllis, Iolanthe reveals herself to him as his long dead wife. She is condemned to die by the Fairy Queen who subsequently discovers that all the fairies have fallen in love with and married all the peers. She can't execute everybody, so she gives up and marries a mortal herself. With everyone happily paired, they all fly off to fairyland. |
