Iolanthe, Gilbert & Sullivan
Title | Iolanthe or The Peer and the Peri |
English Title | |
Composer | Arthur Sullivan |
Librettists | William Gilbert |
Language | English, Dutch translation available |
Genre | Light opera (two acts) |
First performance | 25 November, 1882, Savoy Theatre, London |
Time of action | Between 1700 and 1882 |
Place of action |
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Main parts |
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Prominence of chorus | Lots of chorus |
Orchestra | 2 flutes, 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani/percussion, strings |
Special demands | |
Full score and orchestral parts | Available |
Level | Not difficult |
Length | About 2½ hours, two acts |
Music |
Among the works of Gilbert & Sullivan Iolanthe stands out for the high level of refinement the composer achieved. The music combines a Mendelssohnian lightness and charm befitting a fairy-tale, with the pump-and-circumstance associated with the House of Lords. Librettist Gilbert, too, is at his hilarious best in this wonderful amalgam of political satire, absurdism and poetry. |
Story |
Strephon, son of the Lord chancellor and the fairy Iolanthe, is in love with Phyllis, a shepherdess and a ward in chancery, i.e. a minor under the guardianship of the High Court of Justice. By reason of his parentage Strephon is half-human and half fairy, which leads to many complications. Phyllis has three more suitors: two of them members of the House of Lords and one of them the Lord Chancellor himself. Led by the Fairy Queen, the fairies put a spell on the members of the House of Lords. The Fairy Queen falls in love with the soldier on guard before the Houses of Parliament. Phyllis catches Strephon at a rendezvous with a young lady; in vain he explains that the young lady is his mother: Phyllis does not know that, after eighteen, fairies do not age. In the end, after considerable jurisprudential ingenuity on the part of the Lord Chancellor, all turns out well. The Lords are turned into fairies and there is a general pairing off to everybody’s satisfaction. |
Costumes | Men: members of the House of Lords. Women: fairies. |
Note | |
Pictures | |
Link | Wikipedia |
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