Iolanthe

First produced in London in 1882, Iolanthe initially ran for more than a year, and was the seventh collaboration between the two crusty Englishmen, whose quarrels offstage were almost as famous as their operas. It was, however, the first of a long string of operas to open at the Savoy Theatre, built exclusively for Gilbert & Sullivan and, incidentally, the first theatre in the world to be lighted by electricity. It is from this theatre that The Rome Savoyards take their name. Iolanthe is one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s best-loved works, and while perhaps not as famous as The Mikado, it is most often the opera of choice among G & S fans themselves.

“This show is attractive on so many levels,” says Sandra Provost, the group’s founder and director. “The music is superb, and not only reflects the sparkle of Sullivan’s own creative imagination, but also shows his respect for illustrious colleagues like Mendelssohn, Verdi and Wagner, whose influence in Iolanthe is unmistakable.” Sullivan must have felt less than sparkling when he went to the podium to conduct the opening, on November 25^th 1882: he had just learned that his bank had collapsed and that he had lost his entire life savings. But by the time the final curtain came down, all had been put right. The enthusiastic audience can’t have imagined what lay behind the smile on the composer’s face as he took his bows secure in the knowledge that he and Gilbert had another hit on their hands.

For his part, Gilbert has created a delectable combination of political satire and fairy magic in which a wonderfully eccentric cast of characters inhabit an enchanted England where the House of Lords can be besieged and conquered by a company of  “dainty little fairies”; this along with a libretto which has been called “an elaborate extended lawyer joke”, poking fun at Britain’s hereditary peerage in ways that remain relevant even today. At one point, Gilbert has the Queen of the Fairies threaten to use her magical powers to throw the Peerage open to competitive examination, no doubt little suspecting that one day this identical modification would be proposed in all seriousness (minus the magic) by a certain Labour Prime Minister.