Iolanthe

 Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert and Sullivan. The opera satirises many aspects of British government, law and society. The confrontation between the fairies and the peers is a version of one of Gilbert's favourite themes: a tranquil civilisation of women is disrupted by a male-dominated world through the discovery of mortal love.

Act 1

Under fairy law it is a capital crime to marry a mortal. When Iolanthe, mistress of the fairy revels, transgressed this law, the Queen of the Fairies chose clemency, banishing her from fairyland, on condition that she never see her husband of speak to him again. Twenty five years later, as the opera opens, the fairies (or peris) plead with their queen to pardon her and allow her back to fairyland. From her home in exile under a stream, Iolanthe appears and is pardoned. She tells her happy sisters that she has a fully grown son, Strephton. Though her apparent youthfulness seems to belie the possibility, it is merely the result of her immortality: fairies never grow old.

Strephton then arrives and meets his fairy aunts. He tells his mother of his love for Phyllis, who hapens to be a ward in the court of the Lord Cancellor. The latter has forbidden their marriage. Not only is Strephton a mere shepherd, but her guardian wants to marry her himself. The Fairy Queen promises to help. Strephton and Phyllis plan to elope. In march the haughty peers, announcing their status to all and sundry (including perhaps a “pleb” or two). They all happen to be in love with Phyllis’ matchless beauty. They press the Lord Chancellor to decide which of them will marry her. Put on the spot, her guardian hesitates. The peers then appeal directly to Phyllis, who rejects them all in favour of one who has the virtue of lowliness: their proud blue blood is of no avail. Strephton then pleads his own case, arguing that Nature is on his side. The Lord Chancellor, however, refutes Strephton’s claim on the grounds that he is unable to produce any evidence for it. Thus prevented from marrying Phyllis, Strephton calls on Iolanthe to help him. Mother and son warmly embrace one another.

Unfortunately, they are seen by Phyllis and the crowd of peers, who are in hiding. Strephton summons the full force of fairyland, but when his aunts arrive, the peers mistake them for schoolgirls on an outing. Taking offence at this outrage, the Fairy Queen duly casts a spell: Strephton will become a Member of Parliament with the power to pass any bill, including making the currently hereditary peerage accessible to all, via a competitive examination. For the peers - horror!

Act 2

On duty outside the Palace of Wesminster, Private Willis of the Grenadier Guards shares hi own musings about the effects of heredity upon the political persuasions of the common people. The fairies then arrive and tease the assembled peers about Strephton’s success as an MP. He is successfully carrying out all of the Fairy Queen’s directions, including the introduction of competitive examinations for the House of Lords. The peers beg the fairies to stop him from taking so drastic a step, on the ground that their august assembly cannot possibly be improved. Much to their queens’s dismay, however, the fairies then find themselves following Iolanthe’s path to criminality by falling in love with a bunch of mortals - the peers themselves. The queen too succumbs in similar fashion, overwhelmed by the manly beauty of Private Willis.

Phyllis, meanwhile, given a choice between marrying one of the two lords, Tolloller and Mountararat, chooses to leave it to them to decide. The pair of peers argue about precedence and even threaten to duel in order to uphold family honour. Then both decide to give Phyllis up instead, on the grounds that love is less important than friendship. They are then faced with a desperate Lord Chancellor. He too is smitten, as they had been, but more so: the the extent that he has had a dreadful nightmare. His fellow peers encourage him to marry Phyllis himself. Having thus lost Phyllis, a miserable Strephton sees no consolation in being the successful leader of both parties in parliament (whether they are in coalition or not is unexplained). He tells his beloved that his mother is a fairy and the two lovers beg Iolanthe to plead their case with the Lord Chancellor. She refuses, revealing that the Lord Chancellor is in fact the mortal whom she married in the first place. For his part, the latter knows nothing of Strephton’s birth; and Iolanthe’s promise to her queen precludes her from telling him of it. For love of her son, however, Iolanthe offers to approach her husband, the Lord Chancellor, in disguise. Her appeal immediately moves him, because (strangely enough) it reminds him of his long-lost wife. Yet his current passion is such that he insists that he will marry Phyllis himself. Iolanthe is thus provoked into revealing the truth to him: she is his wife and Strephton his his son.

By her revelation, however, Iolanthe breaks her fairy oath The Fairy Queen is forced to stand by her word and to invoke the fairy law, under which she ought to have Iolanthe executed. Her hand is stayed, however, when she learns that all of the other fairies are about to break the very same law, by being willing to take peers as their husbands.

Faced with the dilemma of either breaking her own word, or killing all of her fellow fairies, the Queen hesitates. The wily lawyer of a Lord Chancellor intervenes with an attractive and typically bureaucratic solution. He suggests the insertion of the single word “not” into the law in question: every fairy who does not marry a mortal will die. The Queen agrees, but immediately realises that she herself is now subject to the newly amended law and will therefore die, unless she finds someone to marry her too - and she has no mortal husband in sight.

Step forward handsome Private Willis, who eagerly and gallantly agrees to marry her. The crowd of peers meanwhile agrees to marry the crowd of fairies an thus willingly leave the realm of mortals. They see no reason to remain there, now that parliament has decided that, member of the House of Lords are to be people who are as unlike themselves as possible: those intelligent enough to succeed in a competitive examination. Happily united, peris and peers all leave for a blissful married life - in fairyland.

The Lord Chancellor

John Soper

George, Earl of Mountararat

Ian Thompson-Smith

Thomas, Earl Tolloller

Hamish Brown

Private Willis

Michael Foster

Queen of the Fairies

Rebecca Smith

Iolanthe

Cathy Atkin

Celia

Jennifer Garbutt

Leila

Annie Howard

Fleta

Amanda Shackleton

Ward in Chancery

Jasmine Caine

Bertram

Anna Robinson

Eunice

Olivia Robinson

Men’s Chorus

Steve Bingham

Peter Butler

Duncan Campbell

Ian Edwards

Will Gausden

Clive Goodhead

Mark Haddon

Peter Hazeldine

Sanjay Kumrai

Clive Marshall

Mike Monument

Bill Read

Paul Richardson

Alan Rome

Nick Skiera

Martin Sleeman

Duncan Watson

Richard White

Andrew Woodmansey

Ladies’ Chorus

Jenny Grant

Mandy Shackleton

Annie Howard

Charlotte Lynch

Miriam Betts

Sue Lindley

Robin Walton

Lorna Shepard

Wendy Jackson

Pat Mortimer

Gill Pryor

Irma Gemmell

Lynn Bingham

Chloe Crowder

Louisa Littler

Patricia Wilkes

Lizzy Nightingale

Emma Tatnall

Rosy Jamieson

Laura Soper

Maggie Soper

Polly Backhouse

Gillian Tiplady

Janet Barrow

Janet Hatcher

Musical Director

Alasdair Jamieson

Stage Director

Pauline Marshall

Assistant Stage Director

Hilary Dyson

Set Design

John Soper

Set Construction and Painting

Paul Richardson (Coordinator)

Peter Butler

Adam James

Louisa Littler

Clive Marshall

Philip Massey

Richard White

Joan Sinanan

Other members of York Opera

Sentry Box

Richard White

Insignia

Peter Butler

Costume Design

Maggie Soper

costume Production

Meg Forrest

Mary Griffiths

Maggie Soper

Fairy Headresses

Meg Forrest

Mary Griffiths

Maggie Soper

Properties

Patricia Easton

Rosamond Jackson

Lighting Design

Andy Pilliner

Publicity

Janet Hatcher

Rosamund Jackson

Wendy Jackson

Louisa Littler

Gill Pryor

Matin Sleeman

Emma Tatnall

Other members of York Opera

Publicity Design

John Soper

Photographs

Hilary Dyson

Wendy Binns

Nigel Lindley

Richard Shouksmith

Michael Foster

Makeup

Pat Mortimer

Programme

Clive Goodhead

Repetiteurs

Margaret Griffiths

Steve Griffiths

Kenneth Briggs

Front of House

Kathleen Shouksmith

Business Manager

Richard Shouksmith

Horn

Alice Small

Mark Skykes

Petr Sehnal

Trumpet

Nial McEwen

Suzanne Crowther

Trombone

Anna Marshall

Derek Chivers

Timpani

Francesca Rochester

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